Fred: Into the Multiverse
by ThePlayaJam765
Summary: After defeating the Wither-Storm, Jesse and his friends become super famous heroes. Meanwhile, Fred decides to settle down off the grid. When a rare item is found, Fred is pulled into another adventure alongside Jesse across many different worlds. But the question remains, will they manage find their way back home? Or have they found themselves stuck forever? Only time will tell...
1. Order Up - The Blaze Rods

Chapter 1 – The Blaze Rods

* * *

Disclaimer: If you have not read **Fred: Admin in Exile** yet. I suggest you read that story first before reading this one.

(Minecraft: Story Mode and its characters belong to Telltale Games, not me.)

* * *

(FRED'S POV)

To say that Fred was concerned would be an understatement. In fact, he would not be exaggerating when he said that Aiden's current attitude and behavior was starting to scare him. This behavior was already going on for about a year now and has been showing no signs of stopping.

Ever since the Wither-Storm was vanquished, and Jesse and his friends were declared 'The New Order of the Stone'. Aiden had gotten colder, meaner and has been extremely aggressive. When Lukas was kicked out, Aiden had renamed the group from 'The Ocelots' to 'The Blaze Rods'.

Meanwhile, Ivor and Lukas had joined on as official members of the New Order of the Stone. Lukas being because he was kicked out of his old group by Aiden, he was already close friends with Jesse and he helped out a lot in vanquishing the Wither Storm.

Ivor joined because of three reasons. One; he and Jesse had become friends in the past year. Two; he helped out a lot with the Wither-Storm by providing the enchanting book, and three; because unlike the Old Order, Jesse's group were heroes who actually did what they were famous for. Turns out, he's a much more pleasant person when he's not busy trying to expose frauds.

Fred, on the other hand, had decided to settle down and had built a small house for himself inside Jesse's new town, near the gate. Needless to say, Fred's favorite building material is still birch. They haven't named the town yet, although a few name ideas had been popping around, the most popular of which is 'Beacontown'.

His nightmares of the incident involving Reuben and the Wither-Storm have been becoming less frequent, however, they haven't totally disappeared.

Yesterday, Jesse, Axel, Olivia and Petra had set out for an ancient temple that Ivor has recently taken an obsession towards. Ivor wouldn't explain why he was obsessed in this temple, only that it has a very rare set of treasure. Fred was hoping to god it wasn't another Admin Gauntlet, because if it was; he'd confiscate it, go to the end and toss it in the void faster than you could blink. He was not risking another 'Romeo' occurring.

Speaking of gauntlets, he was also worried about what Romeo would think when he found out about Jesse's recent adventures. Although it might not happen, Fred had warned Jesse beforehand that if he found anything that was whispering his name, to back away and leave it be. Fred refused to elaborate more on the matter.

"They're back! The guys are back!" A voice pulled him from his thoughts.

"RUN! Tell everyone that our heroes have returned!" A female voice answered.

Yep. That could only mean one thing, Jesse and his group had returned.

Almost as quickly as the female had finish speaking, a huge crowd had bundled at the front gate. Fred stepped outside.

"Yep, New Order of the Stone is BACK IN TOWN!" Axel announced as he took off his glass helmet. Jesse and Fred caught gazes, with Fred winking, before walking off to the Order hall.

Before he could reach the hall however, his attention was grabbed by a decrepit looking skull tower, with lava pouring out the side, no safety barriers in place. Of course; leave it up to Ivor to build something with disregard for people's safety. A crowd was gathered around it, shouting in protest at it. An ear-piercing scream got the rest of the town's attention.

"NOT MY FAULT!" Ivor defended.

Fred saw Jesse and his friends approach behind him. Fred stood aside and decided to let Jesse handle this one.

"Oh, stop your whining!" Ivor groaned. "What are your pathetic injuries in comparison to my majestic tower?"

"Ivor?" Jesse asked.

"Of course." Petra sighed.

Ivor had finally noticed Jesse and his friends.

"Oh, Jesse, you're back!" Ivor greeted. "Don't listen to a word these fools tell you!"

"It's a fire hazard!" A female citizen protested.

"And your face is an ugly hazard!" Ivor retorted. "So, I suppose we're even."

"So, what's this weird structure?" Jesse asked.

"It's my new house!" Ivor responded. "And also… um… my gift to the community. If anyone's short on lava, this is the place to get more! Ha ha! You're welcome!"

The crowd booed and jeered at that, but Ivor ignored them.

"Jesse, all I wanted was what any man wants: a little house of my own… with loads of lava pouring off of it." Ivor continued.

"Ivor, I know you mean well, but your 'house' wants to kill people." Petra reasoned.

"Dude, you made a killer house." Axel commented.

"Exactly! Killer!" The female citizen agreed.

"Shut up!" Ivor retorted.

"What about just moving it someplace else, I'm sure—" Jesse started.

"Move it? Way more lava is going to spill out if we do that!" Ivor stated.

The female citizen looked at Jesse.

"Well? We have to tear it down!" She stated. "We can't let that monstrosity stand!"

Ivor jumped down and approached Jesse.

"It's my house, Jesse! I have just as much a right to build something as all these people, don't I?" He begged.

"I'm sorry, Ivor, but your house is way too much of a hazard to the community. Tear it down, everyone." Jesse instructed.

Fred got an idea that could satisfy everyone.

"Now, hold on everyone. Let's not get too carried away here. How about we simply scoop up the lava with a bucket? Then move the house away from populated areas? After that, we can put the lava back in?" Fred suggested.

"You know what? That could work." Jesse agreed.

"Oh, can't believe I haven't thought of that." Ivor added.

The crowd murmured for a moment, before nodding in agreement.

Ivor turned toward Jesse.

"Haven't seen you around in a while, so what can I do for you?" He asked.

"Actually, I was hoping you could help me with something." Jesse said. "We found something out in the jungle."

"What? You did!? Ha, ha, ha! Yes, great to see you again. Let's do lunch. I'll bring the carrots." Ivor said, before getting up in Jesse's face.

"There's no telling who's listening! Meet me in the treasure room, ten minutes and bring the thing you found." Ivor finished, leaving Jesse slightly shaking. Petra gave him a pat on the back.

"Well, if we're going to move this house, we better start getting some buckets together to scoop up all the lava. You got any iron? Olivia asked.

"Oh, man. No. I'm all out." Axel responded, tapping his pockets.

"Okay, we better go mine some more." Olivia groaned. "We'll catch up with you later."

"Yeah, once we give this majestic house the funeral it deserves." Axel added.

"We're not tearing it down, we're just moving it." Olivia corrected.

"Sounds good, I'll see you guys soon." Jesse nodded.

"Later guys!" Petra waved.

"C'mon. Let's go find Ivor." Jesse suggested.

"I was heading for the Order Hall myself, anyway." Fred informed. "So don't mind me if I hang around for a bit?"

"Not at all." Jesse answered.

* * *

Petra, Fred and Jesse entered the Order Hall.

"Wow, this place is really shaping up." Petra commented.

Up ahead, at the back of the hall, stood Lukas. Fred had seen him earlier today when he arrived, however Jesse and Petra had not seen him for a while.

"Whoa! Lukas! I don't believe it!" Petra exclaimed

"Oh, hey guys!" He greeted. "You have some pretty cool stuff in here."

"Hey, Lukas! Great to see you." Jesse greeted back.

"It's been awhile. I really missed you guys."

"We missed you, too!" Petra responded.

"And you have so many other treasures! Boy, you've sure been busy." Lukas commented.

Everyone's gazes passed over an item frame, where Reuben's pork-chop was framed.

"Oh, wow. You frame it. Er… him." Lukas commented.

Fred felt a twinge of guilt within his stomach. He still believed that it was his fault that Reuben did not survive, even with Jesse constantly reminding him that it wasn't.

"Yeah…" Jesse said.

"How are you doing?" Lukas asked.

"I really, really miss him." Jesse admitted. "Every morning I wake up and, just for a minute, I can pretend that he's just in another room, or rooting outside looking for carrots."

That made Fred feel even more guiltier.

"And then every morning, I get to remember all over that he's gone." Jesse finished.

"I'm so sorry." Lukas responded. "Okay, I promise I wasn't just here to bum everybody out. I actually came back because I needed to tell you something."

Fred's interest was piqued.

"It's about this weird run-in I had, with Aiden."

"Ugh! Hate that guy." Petra grumbled.

"Whatever you said or did, it really got to him." Lukas informed.

"Uh-huh, we saw him, too. The Order of the Stone and the Blaze Rods are just as friendly as ever." Jesse said.

"That's an understatement." Petra deadpanned.

"He's just been so jealous of you and the rest of the Order ever since you saved the world from the Wither-Storm. Convinced that 'he' was supposed to be a hero." Lukas continued.

Fred snorted. What a pompous idiot. Jesse earned his status fair and square.

"Ever since he took over the Ocel- 'The Blaze Rods', it seems like he's just gotten… meaner. Pushing Maya and Gill around." Lukas finished.

"Aiden's a stupid bully. He doesn't scare me." Jesse said, shrugging it off.

"Yeah, that's what I used to say, too. But he's been freaking me out. He got super aggressive, demanding to know what treasure you were after next." Lukas admitted.

Fred was really hoping that the treasure wasn't anything like an Admin gauntlet, because if someone like Aiden got those powers and teamed up with Romeo… Fred shuddered at the thought.

"So what'd you find that got Aiden so excited, anyway?" Lukas asked.

Here it is, moment of truth. Jesse reached into his pocket and pulled out… a glowing flint and steel. Fred barely managed to contain his sigh of relief.

"Check it out!" Jesse said, gesturing them to take a closer look.

"Wow. What a weird glow." Lukas commented.

"Yeah, I know. I'm supposed to show it to-"

"YOU FOUND IT!" Ivor shouted, startling everyone.

Holy crap. Did he materialize out of thin air or something?

"Dude! What's wrong with you?" Jesse yelled in response.

"This, is the greatest find of our time!" Ivor commented. He was almost drooling. "I can't believe you're actually… that you're actually holding this!"

"Okay, spill. What's it do?" Jesse probed.

"It proves what I've always suspected!" Ivor said, overjoyed.

"That glow… that enchantment is the work of a very old group of builders, a group so old that they existed even before the Order of the Stone." Ivor stated.

"Wow. So that temple we went to… was that built by these… old builders?" Jesse asked.

"That's my suspicion! But it's what's inside the temple that interests me even more!" Ivor responded. "You see, if these builders truly existed, and if you found their temple, that means we're one step closer to finding… the 'Eversource!'"

_What?_

"What a beautiful sight." Ivor continued.

"Looks like you came back just in time, Lukas." Petra said, nudging Lukas.

"Wow, so is this 'Eversource' thing valuable?" Jesse asked.

"'Valuable' doesn't even tell the half of it, Jesse." Ivor responded.

"Okay, I'm interested." Petra said.

"The Eversource is said to be an object of incredible power possessed by the old builders. It was some sort of treasure, or artifact, that game them an endless supply of precious materials! Think about it, Jesse! That temple must have been it's hiding place." Ivor explained.

"Wow. 'Old builders.' You learn something new every day." Petra commented.

"I'm still just trying to wrap my head around the 'Eversource.'" Lukas said.

"Hmm. I am definitely interested in finding out more about this 'Eversource'." Fred admitted.

"Well, what are we waiting for, then? We've already been to that temple once; finding it again will be a snap!" Jesse added.

"Old builders, 'Eversources', ancient mysteries, you know I'm in." Petra said.

Ivor beamed at that.

"Excellent! I'll pack my adventuring things immediately!"

And Ivor stormed off.

"Wait. HE'S coming?!" Petra asked in disbelief.

"Wow, sounds like you guys have a lot to get to, I guess I'll take off?" Lukas suggested, moving toward the door.

Petra stopped him.

"Nope, you're coming with." Petra insisted. "I need a buffer between me and Ivor."

"Well, I'm not doing anything, guess I could ride along as well." Fred suggested.

"Let's get moving!" Jesse said, as they raced toward the door.

* * *

After leaving Beacontown, Jesse and Petra led Lukas, Ivor and Fred into a jungle.

"This is so exciting! Ha ha ha! Adventure!" Ivor exclaimed, thrilled.

"Lukas, I know it's daytime, but watch our backs, okay?" Petra instructed. "I can't believe we're bringing Ivor with us."

Ivor was bouncing up and down in excitement.

"I mean, it's nice that he's so excited? But, ugh. Not my top choice for 'Adventuring Companion'."

"Aw, come on. He's super funny and he makes me laugh." Jesse defended.

"I guess." Petra grumbled.

"These trees are enormous! I love it so much!" Ivor bellowed.

"He just, really gets on my nerves sometimes." Petra sighed.

The group of five approached a temple.

"Remarkable! Look at this architecture. So old! So exquisite!" Ivor commented. "Oh, this is just how I dreamed it would be."

"Ivor, it's nice to see you smiling." Jesse pointed out.

Ivor was quick to put on a neutral expression on his face.

"I'm not smiling." He said.

"Pfft. Sure." Fred retorted.

Ivor gave Fred a glare.

They entered the temple.

"Wow. It looks so different during the day." Jesse commented.

"Okay but be careful what you touch. There could be traps everywhere." Ivor warned. "Petra! Admin guy! Blond guy! Are you two as excited as I am?"

"I'm not sure that's possible." Petra responded.

"What?"

"She means that you just seem to be super excited, Ivor." Lukas pointed out.

Fred took a look around. This temple has definitely been here for a long time, some of the walls were starting to fall apart.

"Huh, doesn't look like those lava channels work anymore." Jesse commented.

"Why, what do they do?" Fred asked.

"Last night, the floor opened up into a basement, which is where I got the flint and steel." Jesse explained. "Also had to deal with mobs, too."

Fred gave a nod of understanding. He walked off and took a look at the lava channels. Needless to say, he had no idea on how to get these things working again.

"You look excited, Ivor." Jesse commented.

"Excited?! I'm ecstatic! Thrilled! Over-joyed!" Ivor responded. "THE EVERSOUCE COULD FINALLY BE WITHIN MY GRASP!"

Ivor calmed down a little.

"Once, uh, once we find it, that is." He added.

Fred's gaze passed over an opening in the ceiling near Ivor. It seemed Jesse noticed it too.

"Well, that wasn't there last night." Jesse commented.

"Probably because you were more worried about mobs?" Fred assumed, approaching Jesse.

Jesse walked over toward the vines.

"That looks promising, I'm heading up!" Jesse said.

"Fantastic, we'll follow right behind you!" Ivor responded.

"Uh, yeah. What he said." Petra added, less enthusiastic.

Jesse began to climb the vines.

"So, you think this Eversource thing is up here?" Jesse asked, climbing up.

"Hard to say, Jesse! As the story goes, the Old Builders feared its potential, so they hid it away in a place where it would never be found. And, ha! It never has been." Ivor stated.

Jesse did not respond. Ivor quickly grew impatient.

"What is Jesse doing up there?" He impatiently asked.

Fred heard the sound of sticky pistons above him. He eventually just decided to climb up to the top, Ivor and the others following.

"Jesse? What do you see?" Ivor questioned.

Reaching the top, they happened across a weird looking frame. It had the same height and width as a regular nether portal, but it had a different design around the top, framed in gold blocks.

"Some kind of, portal?" Lukas observed.

Fred assumed that it would have to be lit with Jesse's flint and steel.

"It's just as I'd imagined." Ivor commented. "Spectacular."

"That's a weird-looking portal. Have you seen anything like it before?" Jesse asked.

"No. The Old Builders experimented with portals, but… this is different from anything I've seen." Ivor answered.

Jesse, getting an idea, pulled out his flint and steel. He approached the frame.

"Here goes nothing." Jesse said. He flicked the flint and steel together.

The shockwave of the portal opening knocked everyone except for Fred off their feet. Jesse dropped the flint and steel.

Said flint and steel rolled across the ground, before stopping at a pair of feet behind them. Fred immediately recognized this individual as Aiden.

"Oh, thanks for bringing this back to me, Jesse." Aiden drawled.

Maya and Gill climbed up behind him.

"I knew you were good for something." Aiden continued.

"That thing is way bigger and more powerful than you could understand, Aiden. Give it back!" Jesse demanded.

"Says the person who just got knocked on his butt trying to light it." Aiden mocked. "Step aside, Jesse. We're heading through that portal now."

"No, you're not." Fred said, stepping in-front of Jesse.

"And who's this idiot?" Aiden asked.

"'This Idiot', is the guy who is demanding that you hand that thing back over, Aiden." Fred responded. He held out his hand. "Give. It. Here."

"Fine. Blaze Rods? Clear me a path." Aiden ordered.

Maya and Gill ran past Fred and started fighting Jesse and the others. Fred took his sights off of Aiden to lend a hand.

While Fred was distracted, Aiden had already reached the portal.

"Let's go!" Aiden called out, before vanishing completely into the portal. Maya and Gill followed.

"We've got to follow them." Ivor instructed. "If they get the Eversource, who knows what trouble they'll cause!"

"We're going after Aiden, and we're going to take them down." Jesse said.

And with that, the group of five followed Aiden and his jerks through the portal.

* * *

Author's Notes: So, that just happened.

Fred's presence will have a few more impacts in this story than it did with the Wither-Storm.

Not much else to say.

Like it? Review. Don't like it, look up another story.

More to follow.


	2. Order Up - Sky City

Chapter 2 – Sky City

* * *

Disclaimer: If you have not read **Fred: Admin in Exile** yet. I suggest you read that story first before reading this one.

(Minecraft: Story Mode and its characters belong to Telltale Games, not me.)

* * *

(FRED'S POV)

After jumping into the portal, Fred landed, to find Jesse struggling to pull Ivor up, who was about to fall off the edge.

"Don't worry! I've got you!" Jesse reassured Ivor. Fred, seeing that they were struggling, offered a hand. They managed to pull Ivor back onto the floating island.

"…You are surprisingly heavy!" Jesse managed to get out, panting.

"I am… the proportionate weight for my height… thank you very much." Ivor retorted, also panting.

Lukas put his arm around Ivor.

"There you go. Easy now." Lukas told Ivor.

"Yes, thank you, thank you." Ivor retorted again.

It seems there was only the five of them on the island they were standing on. No-one else. Not even Aiden. Fred looked down at the edge, only to find nothing but clouds and strong wind.

"Okay, there is nothing but sky down there! It's all just... empty... sky." Jesse commented, also looking over the edge.

"I bet Soren would probably have fainted on the spot right now if he were here." Fred stated.

"I've traveled all over our world, to nearly every corner, and there has always been land or water beneath me..." Ivor added.

"Do you think Aiden knew about all this? The portal? The Eversource?" Jesse asked.

"He definitely seems to know now..." Ivor responded.

Fred walked to the other side of the island, looking around. What he saw almost made his eyes widen in surprise. There was a floating city in the distance. Some of the structures were made out of gold blocks.

"Guys, you might want to see this." Fred called out, gesturing toward him.

The others approached Fred and saw what he was looking at.

"So very strange." Ivor observed.

"Wow. It looks like some kind of city. That's incredible." Jesse commented.

Ivor was jumping in excitement now.

"That's it! That's where it must be! The Eversource." Ivor shouted.

"A city in the clouds… it almost sounds impossible." Petra added.

"I just don't know how we're going to reach it." Lukas stated.

"Yeah, that's definitely going to be a problem…" Petra agreed.

"I can't believe this. We fall through a portal into another world, and then we can't even go anywhere!" Lukas angrily stated.

"I don't suppose anyone packed one of those flying machines?" Jesse asked.

"Eh, that's more Olivia's bag." Petra responded.

"Yeah, I've got nothing." Lukas added.

"Well. It seems we're in another world now. Which means I can freely fly and teleport around without consequence." Fred added. "But for now, I'd prefer to settle with a bridge. I don't want to scare the citizens of that city by having them see us floating in the air."

"I don't know, seems like a long way. Do we have enough blocks?" Lukas asked. "I mean, it's really, really far!"

"Yes. Very astute, Lukas!" Ivor responded.

"Ivor the grump strikes again, I see." Petra retorted.

Using his powers to take a quick scan of the island, Fred noticed that the underside was way bigger than he expected. Jesse seemed to notice this as well.

"Elementary, my dear Lukas. The underside of this island is much, much bigger than it appears." Jesse stated.

"Really?"

"He's right. If we strip the whole island down to nothing, we'll have enough blocks to get to the other side." Fred agreed. "Besides, if we run short, I can just use my powers to fill in the rest of the way."

And the group of five set to work stripping the island down, eventually forcing them all together on a two by two block platform. Fred was floating slightly, so that he wouldn't accidentally push anyone off.

"STOP PUSHING!" Ivor yelled.

"I'm not pushing. Lukas is pushing." Petra responded.

"I'm just trying to keep away from the edge!" Lukas defended.

"It's all edge!" Petra corrected.

"Okay, gang, I think that should do it. Let's make ourselves a bridge." Jesse instructed.

And that was exactly what they did. It turns out they had precisely the correct number of blocks to cover the distance.

"Okay, this is our stop. Evvverybody off." Jesse said as the five stepped onto the island.

"Ivor, seriously?" Petra asked, eyeing a dirt skull structure with lava pouring out of its eyes. Fred just rolled his eyes.

"Sorry, can't help myself." Ivor responded.

"You're building." A voice behind them, said, grabbing their attention.

It belonged to a dark haired, light skinned person who was trembling in fear.

"I… You… I don't…" He stammered.

"Hey, yeah, we're building? Is something wrong with that?" Jesse asked.

"I, uh… You don't know?" The nervous guy continued. "Y-Yo-You, You were, you were building. Unauthorized building is against the law!"

"Wait, there's a law saying people can't build?" Petra asked, disbelievingly.

"Yes! It's forbidden!" The nervous guy answered.

"This… this makes no sense. No sense at all." Ivor commented.

"I… well…. That's the law?"

"Okay, I'll bite. Why's building against the law?" Jesse asked.

"Oh, this is making me terribly nervous. First those other outsiders, now you…"

"'Other outsiders?' Where are they?" Lukas questioned.

"Uh, they went to the in. I'm sorry, but that's all I know." The nervous guy said before running off.

"Wait wait wait, come back!" Jesse said.

"I'm super busy sorry!"

"And he's gone." Petra commented.

"Darn." Lukas exclaimed in frustration.

The group followed the direction guy the nervous guy went in, to find themselves in some kind of courtyard.

"I wonder if everyone here is that…."

Ivor faltered at the builds made out of Iron and Gold blocks.

"…nervous." He finished.

Fred took notice that there were guards patrolling the place, watching over various stuff. Whoever the leader was around here, they were extremely strict.

"Wow." Lukas commented. Jesse nodded his head in agreement.

"It's unbelievable, who made it?" Jesse asked.

"Whoever it was must had had the Eversource. It's the only explanation for the copious amount of rare materials they used to build it." Ivor stated. "And when I get my hands on it…"

"Hey, how about you take a massive chill pill and we find it first!" Petra snapped.

"Yes, yes, yes, yes, yes. I'm just getting excited." Ivor sheepishly responded.

"As crazy as Aiden's been lately, if he gets that thing, it would be bad." Lukas agreed.

"Well, if we beat him to it, he won't be able to get his slimy little hands on the thing!"

"Knowing Aiden, I have a bad feeling that he's probably going to try and manipulate the leader of this place to turn against us." Fred admitted.

"Well, that nervous guy mentioned an inn, so why don't we start there?" Jesse suggested.

"Agreed." Ivor agreed. The group wandered off in their own directions.

"HELLO! IT IS NICE TO MEET YOU!" Ivor exclaimed, approaching a citizen. Wow, way to remain inconspicuous…. not.

Fred saw Jesse looking at a crafting table.

"Boy, these are some popular crafting tables." Jesse commented.

"Indeed. Probably has something to do with the whole 'No Unauthorized Building' thing that this place has going on." Fred agreed. "Ridiculous if you ask me."

"Don't worry, everyone, your turn will come in time." The guard assured. "Please have your materials ready when you approach the crafting table."

"Augh, I knew I shouldn't have waited so long to eat!" A citizen groaned.

Jesse approached him and offered a cake to him.

"Hey, if you're hungry, you should try this." Jesse offered.

The citizen accepted it.

"If you say so-" He took a bite. "Holy handouts. That's incredible!"

He finished the rest of the cake.

"Do you, do you have any more of that?" He asked.

"Sorry, all out." Jesse admitted.

"That's, that's okay. I may just never be happy again until I find more of that, 'cake.'" The citizen responded.

"Wow, this is a long line just to use a crafting table." Jesse commented.

"Eh, it's always like this. You uh, you sure you don't have any more of that cake?"

"'Fraid not." Jesse responded.

"It's fine. I'm… sure I'll find some other way to fill that void. What, um, what can I do for you?"

Fred stepped in.

"We're looking for the inn, do you have any idea where that could be?" Fred asked.

"Oh, uh, Milo's place? Ha, that guy's hilarious. He's over that-a-way." The citizen pointed out to a building across the other side of the courtyard.

"'Milo,' huh? Thanks." Jesse responded.

"No problem."

Jesse and Fred followed his directions until they came across a building with the sign 'INN' on it. Underneath the sign, a blonde-haired guy with a goatee looked like he was doing a shady deal with a dark-skinned person. Fred assumed the blonde guy was Milo.

"…and where should I put them?" The dark-skinned guy asked, holding out some sticks.

"Yes, just give them here. I'll deal with them." Milo whispered, grabbing them. "Get out of here. Go! Go!"

He pretended to finally notice Jesse and Fred.

"Why, hello there. What can I do for you two?" Milo asked. "I'm not sure what the custom is where you come from, but here, it is considered impolite to stare."

"Uh, hi. Sorry to bother you. Are you 'Milo?' Jesse questioned.

"Yes, yes that's me. A pleasure to meet you." Milo confirmed. "Don't see many new arrivals here in sky city. Now, what can I do for you, friend?"

"Okay, not going to dance around here. Have you seen a bunch of pompous idiots wearing matching jackets?" Fred asked. "Call themselves 'Blaze Rods?'"

"Hmm. 'Blaze Rods'?" Milo responded. "I don't know any Blaze Rods, you must have been misled."

Milo moved to walk back inside.

"I'm sorry, but it's like I told those other outsiders, I can't help you. Now please-"

Lukas, Ivor and Petra rejoined Fred and Jesse.

"Hey, this our guy?" Petra asked.

"He tell you where to find the Blaze Rods?" Ivor questioned.

"How many of you are there? I told you, I don't know anything." Milo panicked.

"He hasn't told you anything yet?" Ivor asked with disbelief.

"Is he hiding them somewhere?" Petra added.

"I am uncomfortable with this line of questioning." Milo stated.

"All right, look. Let me explain." Fred began. "The Blaze Rods are a group lead by someone named 'Aiden.' And if I am not mistaken, they are here to steal something extremely valuable."

"Fine! If it will make you leave me alone, that 'Aiden' fellow DID come talk to me earlier." Milo admitted. "Wanted to know where the Eversource was."

"Called it!" Ivor exclaimed.

"I just told him what everyone else already knows, the Eversource is in the palace with the Founder. That's all I know, I swear." Milo continued.

"What a bunch of creeps!" Petra grumbled.

"Yes, I wasn't terribly fond of them." Milo agreed.

"One more question, where is the Founder? Because we need speak to them before Aiden does." Fred said. "Do you know where he or she is?"

"The Founder resides in the palace." Milo answered. "However, that's also the place where Aiden went after speaking to me."

"Attention! Attention, everyone!" A guard's voice called. "Just a moment of your time, please! Emergency meeting! Attendance is mandatory!"

"Oh, slime blocks." Milo exclaimed, walking toward the courtyard. Fred, Jesse and the others followed.

"Curious, I wonder what that's all about." Ivor wondered.

Guards were all grouped together at the front entrance of a palace. Fred saw a stern looking woman in a yellow dress with green eye shadow step out.

"Oh, it's the founder!" A female citizen said, confirming her as the leader. But there was even more trouble, Aiden was standing next to her.

"I wonder what this is all about." Petra said, not noticing Aiden.

"Yes, I'm nervous being surrounded by so many people." Ivor agreed.

"This might not be as easy as I thought. Look who's standing next to the Founder." Fred commented. It seems Aiden had already turned her against Jesse.

"What are you-? Oh crap." Petra said, noticing Aiden. Aiden was looking directly at Jesse with a smirk on his face.

"People of Sky City!" The Founder began. "I'm sorry to pull you from your duties, but something urgent has come to my attention. A crime has been committed."

The crowd gasped and began murmuring at that.

"Please, please remain calm. Earlier, today, outsiders built a bridge into our fair city from a distant island!" The Founder continued. The gates opened, to reveal the bridge that Fred helped build, with the dirt skull and lava.

"Ivor, you need to learn to control yourself!" Fred growled through gritted teeth, glaring with his Admin form's eyes. If looks could kill, Ivor would have already dropped dead and poofed into white smoke.

"Now, whether these outsiders know it or not, this is a violation of Sky City's most sacred law; No unauthorized building!" The Founder finished.

Milo turned to the group.

"Wait, was that you? Are you the bridge builders?" Milo asked.

"Yes!" Fred snapped. "And I have to say, that law has zero logic in it."

Aiden whispered something in the Founder's ear.

"Jesse! Wherever you are, step forward now!" The Founder instructed. "I have already been informed of your identity. I appreciate that you may be ignorant of our laws, but I will warn you; Sky City is small, and I promise that if you try to hide, I will find you."

Guards began to step forward.

"We need to get to that Eversource at whatever cost!" Ivor reminded. "This is clearly our fastest way into the castle!"

"BY GETTING ARRESTED!?" Petra asked, scandalized.

"Wait! Don't be fooled by the Founder's lies. I can help you come up with a way into the castle!" Milo offered.

"HERE I AM! I BUILT THE BRIDGE!" Ivor bellowed. Jumping up and grabbing the attention of the palace guards. The crowd gasped.

"Are you crazy? Does she look like she's gonna help us?" Petra responded.

"Sorry Ivor, I'm going with Milo." Jesse agreed.

"Me too!" Petra added.

"Quick then. Follow me!" Milo ordered.

"Wait, wait. I'm coming peacefully." Ivor complained.

"Hey, hey! That's them! They're getting away!" Aiden shouted, pointing towards Jesse.

"After them!"

"Jesse, run! Run!" Lukas shouted, before getting tackled by a bunch of guards.

Fred saw Jesse follow Milo and Petra down the alleyway. He took no pleasure in using his powers against other people, but he had to help Jesse get away.

Fred teleported at the entrance to the alleyway, blocking the guards from following Jesse. He was glaring at them full on with his Admin eyes.

"Oh no, you don't!" Fred taunted, jumping up and then bringing his feet crashing down on the ground, creating a shockwave that knocked every guard flying everywhere across the courtyard. He moved to rejoin Jesse.

As Jesse slid underneath two guards, Fred approached them.

"You're coming with us, criminal!" A guard growled, grabbing Fred.

"I beg to differ!" Fred retorted, before disappearing in purple ender particles, leaving two dumbfounded guards scratching their heads, trying to figure out what just happened.

Fred reappeared next to Jesse inside the alcove that he, Petra and Milo were hiding in, completely startling Milo.

"H-How did you-" Milo began.

"Later." Fred interrupted. "Now's not the time."

The guards ran past the alcove, having failed to notice that they were hiding in there. Once Milo saw that the coast was clear, he gestured for Jesse, Petra and Fred to follow. He led them straight back to the Inn that they were just at and led them inside.

* * *

Author's Notes: Originally, I was going to have Fred come peacefully, explaining himself and getting the Founder on their side, but I scrapped that for this idea. I wanted to have a little peek at Fred in action, using his powers to help escape the guards.

Not much else to say.

Like it? Review. Don't like it, look up something else.

More to follow.


	3. Order Up - Build Club

Chapter 3 – Build Club

* * *

Disclaimer: If you have not read **Fred: Admin in Exile** yet. I suggest you read that story first before reading this one.

* * *

Before we begin this chapter, I am going to say that updates will be slightly less frequent from here on. I am busy with work and other life stuff, which means less time for me to spend writing. I will still update, just not every day as I have been doing for the past story.

Enough talk, let's get straight into the story.

* * *

(Minecraft: Story Mode and its characters belong to Telltale Games, not me.)

* * *

(FRED'S POV)

"Just in here!" Milo led.

They entered the inn, to find that it only contained one room. And this wasn't a very good room to hide in.

"There's nowhere to hide in here, it's a dead end!" Petra panicked.

"Before I can take you two any further, you must take an oath." Milo insisted.

"I think they went this way!" A guard's voice called from outside.

"You must swear to never reveal what I am about to show you." Milo continued.

"What?" Petra exclaimed.

"Do you swear that?" Milo asked, impatiently.

Fred stepped in.

"Milo. We solemnly swear that your secret is safe with us." Fred swore.

"Fantastic!" Milo stated. "Phillipe?"

The bartender nodded his head, before flipping a lever on the underside of the table.

The cobblestone wall opened.

"Right this way." Milo gestured.

Fred, Jesse and Petra entered, Milo trailing after them.

"This… is Build Club." Milo introduced.

Inside the hidden room, they could see a group of people working at crafting tables.

"Everything you see before you was built from resources that my people have saved or… er… obtained." Milo explained.

"Wow! You're a full-on criminal, aren't you?" Fred teased, poking Milo in the back.

"Can't be easy to come by some of this stuff, nice work." Petra complimented.

"Wow. This is quite the secret hideout, Milo! Very nice!" Jesse commented.

"Ahem, it is not a 'hideout'. It is a 'Build Club.'" Milo corrected. "You see, one day a long time ago, I was just a citizen of Sky City, like any other. I wanted to make a community garden, so I put in a petition for a dirt block. And, mercy me, it was granted!"

Milo turned away.

"But in my excitement and haste to build my garden, I accidentally dropped my new block, and it fell… right over the edge." Milo continued. "For my crime, I was tossed into the Founder's dungeons. And I was in there for a very, very long time."

"Wait, you just dropped some dirt. What was the crime?" Jesse asked. Fred was just as confused about this 'crime' as Jesse was.

"The crime, Jesse, was the 'Egregious Wasting of Resources.'" Milo explained. "You see, in our world, when something falls over the edge, it is gone. Forever."

Fred inwardly cursed himself for not being able to toss the Admin Gauntlet into the void right now.

"But I've always believed in my heart, that just because building is risky doesn't mean that no-one should do it." Milo stated.

"Exactly. If you don't try new things, you won't make any mistakes, and not making mistakes means you never learn." Fred agreed. "Although, I admit, it was foolish to be dancing around so close to the edge. What if you fell off as well?"

"If only I had known you were builders sooner, I would have helped you ALL escape when I first met you, rather than let your friends be taken." Milo admitted. "But, at least you are here, yes?"

"I would like to save Lukas." Petra said.

"Milo, our friends are in trouble. We have to help them." Jesse reminded.

"Yes, I know, I-"

"Hey! Milo!" An unpleasant voice interrupted.

"Ah, hello my friends!" Milo greeted.

"Bringing in outsiders? Seriously?" The dark-skinned man from outside questioned.

"Pretty hard to keep this a SECRET club if you just bring people in." A female builder agreed.

"We have it hard enough as it is!"

"Everyone, please!" Milo said, attempting to calm them.

"Yeah! It's hard enough without you bringing in a couple of randos!"

"Guys, don't worry. We're builders, just like you!" Jesse explained.

"Yeah, Jesse's right, just chill out. We're the ones that built that bridge into town today." Petra stated.

That apparently was the wrong thing to say, for that caused an uproar.

"DUDE!"

"Milo! Jeez!"

"Milo, are you kidding me? The most wanted criminals in the whole city?! We gotta turn them in before the guards break our door down!"

Fred rolled his eyes. Those guards probably won't be forgetting about his power display outside anytime soon.

"Well, no. Let's not do that." Petra suggested.

"I assure you, harboring them is work the risk!" Milo assured. "They are the epitome of Build Club material!"

"And besides, they won't even be able to touch us right now." Fred added. "Not while I am here using my near-infinite admin powers against them."

The builders of Build Club grouped together, whispering to each other. Fred caught little snippets of it. They were saying something about a challenge.

The dark-skinned man turned around.

"All right then, if Milo says you're these 'amazing builders'… Prove it." He challenged, glaring at the group.

"Gladly." Fred accepted, glaring right back. Milo approached him.

"We don't know many recipes, so if you just show us a few things that you do where you come from." Milo suggested.

He led them up towards a platform. He gave Fred some iron blocks and some iron ingots.

"It took us many weeks to scrape together this inventory. Please, use them for your build." Milo requested.

"Oh, I won't need these. I got just the thing to show you." Fred responded, with a smirk, handing them back. He was going to show them just what he was capable of building with his Admin powers.

"Come on, Fred. You've got this." Jesse assured.

Perhaps one of those special golems that Romeo liked to build back when they used to be friends. Yeah, that should do the trick.

Spawning some iron blocks in his hand, he placed two on each side of the pre-existing stack of iron blocks, forming a t-shape. Instead of putting a pumpkin on the head, he clapped his hands. The entire thing began to rumble.

And then, out popped a special looking golem. It looked just like one of the prison golems that Romeo liked to use as guards, only it had glowing lapis blue lines on it instead of glowing red. It stood up and faced the crowd of Build Club, who were now completely petrified in fear.

"SWEET MERCY!" Milo exclaimed.

"AH! AH!" A female rebel screamed.

"FRED?! WHAT IS THAT THING?!" Milo demanded, trembling.

The Blue Prison Golem stood there, awaiting it's first order from Fred, unaware that it was just built for demonstration.

"Is… is it? Is it safe?" Milo stammered.

But the fun wasn't going to stop there, oh no. Fred wanted to play with them a bit more. He placed a fake expression of fear on his face.

"OH NO! IT'S HOSTILE AND DANGEROUS! RUN FOR YOUR LIVES!" Fred exclaimed, faking fear within his voice. He had to cover his face to hide his amusement.

Immediately, pandemonium ensued as everyone started screaming, completely buying it. Fred couldn't hold it in anymore and started howling with laughter. Jesse was grinning madly while Petra just rolled her eyes.

Okay, maybe he was being a little too mean. So he decided to end the façade.

"All right. Calm down, everyone." Fred said, waving his arms. "It was just a joke. It's completely under my control and will obey my every command. So you're completely safe."

Everyone stopped screaming, but they still looked terrified.

"Man you guys are gullible." Fred remarked. "Didn't I just say that I had _NEAR-INFINITE_ admin powers? Of course I'd have full control of whatever I create."

"I can understand why the guards are after you. I mean, that was awesome!" A female member complimented, still trembling.

"Right!? I told you!" Milo said, with an 'I rest my case.' Attitude.

"Yeah, we're really sorry. Wowzers." A member with an eyepatch apologized.

"I admit, maybe you guys were just a little bit skeptical, and I completely understand that. Apologies are accepted." Fred announced.

"Now, uh, how about that whole 'getting us into the palace' thing?" Jesse asked.

"Yeah, that would be great." Petra added.

"Ah, yes, of course, of course." Milo agreed. "That is, after all, why you are here."

"I must say though, those super-powers that you seem to possess, they are much more impressive than I could have imagined. So impressive that I wonder if I could implore you for a tiny favor?" Milo asked.

"What kind of favor?" Petra inquired.

"I help you get into the palace, you help me steal the Eversource for my people." Milo offered. "UNLIMITED RESOURCES FOR EVERYONE!"

"Well, looking at the type of place you guys live in, I think you guys definitely need it much more desperately than we." Fred stated. "I accept your proposition, on the condition that we help our friends out of jail."

"This is an acceptable, and noble, arrangement." Milo agreed.

"Good." Petra responded.

"Now, as for how to get into the palace." Milo continued. "According to my informants, the Founder keeps the Eversource behind a secret door located in her throne room."

"Dramatic." Petra commented.

"Every night, the Founder leaves guards at every door. But there's a single window at the back of the palace that is left unguarded. It's an almost perfect point of entry, but… it is far too high."

Petra gave a chuckle of amusement at that. Jesse grinned at her in agreement.

"If we can find a way through that window, the Eversource would be practically within our grasp!"

"Guys, how high it is doesn't matter!" Jesse pointed out. He stepped up onto the platform.

"What?"

"You just have to start thinking like real builders and craft a solution!" Jesse said.

"Yeah, like a ladder." Petra suggested.

Build club began to murmur again.

Milo stepped up and gave Jesse some sticks.

"If you could show us how to craft something that would reach the window, we can get this heist underway!" Milo said.

Using the sticks, Jesse crafted them into a ladder. He picked it up and showed everyone, who gave impressed gasps at it.

"Yes, of course. It seems so simple now." Milo admitted. "Hooray!"

Build club cheered.

"You guys are now part of us. We will never forget this day." Milo stated.

* * *

Later on, as night fell, Jesse, Petra, Fred and Milo found themselves creeping alongside the edge of the palace towards the window that Milo mentioned.

"Okay, my friends." Milo whispered. "This should take us right into the throne room. Once inside, we will just need to find the secret entrance that the Founder supposedly uses. Isn't it exciting? On our way to changing everything?"

"Hey, would you keep it down, Milo?" chastised Jesse. "We're sneaking in, remember? 'Sneaking.'"

"Right, right, right. My apologies." Milo responded, whispering again. "I'm just so excited. Actually out in the field, applying ladders to a wall!"

Jesse approached the wall below the window and applied the ladders to the wall, reaching the top of the window.

Petra and Milo began to climb, while Fred decided to cut time by flying inside. The room seemed pretty spacious, and there was a throne in the middle of the room.

As they approached a set of double doors at the entrance of the room, a distant voice cried out, startling them.

"THEN WHAT DID SHE SAY?"

The door creaked open.

"Guards!" Petra panicked. "Everyone hide!"

Fred teleported away while Jesse and Petra backed against the wall around the corner they were peeking out of.

Two people walked inside.

"Okay, the throne room was in here." One of them mused, sounding a lot like Ivor.

"Yeah, I know I know." Lukas' voice snapped. "Why are you saying things to me that I already-"

Lukas and Ivor found Jesse and Petra hiding against the wall.

"Whoa!" Lukas and Jesse exclaimed at the same time.

Fred teleported back in from where he was hiding, knowing that it was safe.

"Jesse!" Ivor exclaimed as well.

"Jesse! Petra! Fred!" Lukas greeted. "Boy am I glad to see you guys."

"Right back atcha." Petra agreed.

"What are the odds, am I right?" Ivor added.

"Lukas! Ivor! We're here to rescue you!" Jesse said.

"I think you're a little late for that." Ivor responded.

"Ha, yeah. We broke out ourselves!" Lukas stated. "It's a good thing you guys are here. Aiden's going after the Eversource!"

"Which we obviously can't abide!" Ivor said. "We're here to get it first!"

Fred gave a nervous smile while scratching the back of his head. Seems there might be a little disagreement imminent between him and Milo.

"Fantastic! That is what we are doing as well." Milo responded.

"Who, uh, who's this guy, by the way?" Lukas asked. "I mean, I assume he's cool, right?"

"Why would you assume that?" Ivor questioned, looking at Milo skeptically.

"Oh, right. Milo, Lukas. Lukas, Milo. Milo, Ivor. Ivor, Milo." Jesse introduced. "He's a new friend."

"I am charmed." Milo said as he and Lukas shook hands.

"Yeah, yeah." Ivor retorted, impatiently.

"The Founder's secret entrance is supposed to be somewhere in this throne room." Milo pointed out.

"If it's in here, we'll find it." Jesse assured.

Fred saw Jesse approach a bunch of book-cases. Interested in what might be there, Fred approached him.

"'Habits of the Endermen', by Soren?" Jesse said, surprised. "Wow, how'd that get here?"

"Maybe Soren explored other worlds as well." Fred suggested. "It's not completely unlikely."

Jesse just shrugged before walking off. Fred followed after him.

They approached Petra, who was watching the door.

"See anyone?" Jesse asked.

"Not yet, but the acoustics are funky in this place, so it's hard to tell when people are coming. We shouldn't hang around." Petra responded.

"Now that you mention it, this place definitely seems pretty sound-proofed." Fred agreed. "Probably so that intruders have less time to run should the Founder decide to randomly enter the room."

Jesse walked up to the throne and sat on it.

Fred slowly clapped.

"Congratulations on wasting time sitting on that." Fred deadpanned.

Jesse gave a blush of embarrassment before getting off. He approached a section of the wall that had some kind of door recessed into it.

"I'm getting a very 'door' vibe from this." Jesse commented.

"Yeah, what happened to it?" Lukas asked.

"Just need to make something to activate that redstone circuit again. There's gotta be something in here we can use." Jesse said.

"Like a lever!" Ivor suggested, overhearing their conversation. "If you can find one of those bad boys, we'll have that secret door open in a snap!"

"If you ask me, it'd be foolish to keep anything that can activate a redstone circuit in a room like this, so I'm pretty sure finding a lever is going to be a little 'difficult'." Fred added. "So, if you'll excuse me."

Fred clapped his hands, blinking a redstone torch onto the spot where he assumed a lever was supposed to go. At once, the redstone circuit lit up.

The door opened up, to reveal a set of 5 minecarts. They moved along the track into the room.

"Excellent! This is it!" Ivor exclaimed.

"You five get on. I'll be right behind you." Fred assured.

"Eversource, here we come!" Jesse said as they got in the minecarts and they began to move.

As the minecarts moved down the steep ramps, not unlike those seen in rollercoaster rides, Fred used his powers of flight to follow behind them.

At last, they reached the bottom. Milo looked like he was ready to throw up. A lot of people usually do after their first experience in fast minecarts.

The room that they stopped at was filled with hundreds of chests. Underneath them, they were labeled. Not with items or potion names, but the labels had the names of mobs. Every chest had a mob assigned to them. A row had the signs of Zombies, Ghasts, Slime and Ocelots.

"Wow, look at all these chests." Jesse commented.

"Yeah, and they're all labeled?" Petra said, confused.

Milo read some of the labels out-loud.

"'Creeper,' 'Zombie,' 'Sheep,' 'Pigman'… Curious."

"But, what does it mean?" Ivor asked.

Jesse pulled out an egg from the chest labeled Sheep. But this wasn't just any egg. Upon closer inspection, Fred saw that the egg was white with pinkish spots around it. This was a spawn egg. He had seen them before, having spawned a few in the past with his Admin Powers, but had no idea how they can be spawned naturally.

"Eggs? The sign says 'sheep', not 'eggs'." Lukas pointed out.

"Might as well throw it and give it a shot?" Petra suggested.

Jesse took aim and threw the egg at the nearest wall. The moment the egg touched the wall, it burst open and a sheep immediately appeared in its place.

"A sheep?" Petra questioned, raising an eyebrow.

"Is-is that a monster?" Milo asked. "That is not so bad. It is fluffy."

"No, Milo. It is not a monster. That is a sheep." Fred pointed out. "Have you not seen mobs before?"

"No. I haven't." Milo admitted. "Life up here is the only life I have known."

"So the eggs all have creatures inside them." Petra said.

"And they're all different colors." Lukas observed. "They must be, y'know, color-coded to what's in them."

"So, she can just spawn things whenever she wants to." Petra continued.

Fred had a feeling that those eggs are what the Eversource creates.

"So this must be where the resources come from." Jesse commented. "Different monsters and creatures, different drops."

Not a very efficient system. Where are you supposed to get things like birch wood or sticks to make tools such as hoes for farming?

"Stay on your toes! We're close! Ahh, I can't wait." Ivor exclaimed as he ran off.

"Let's take a look around." Jesse suggested. Milo, Fred and Petra nodded. They walked off in the direction where Ivor ran.

Walking into another opening, Fred's attention was grabbed by a… chicken clucking sound?

Looking back, he saw that it was coming from a chicken in-front of Jesse wearing a crown and a tiny red necklace. It immediately made him think of his old pet, Waffles, that he used to have back in the original world. The crown and necklace seemed important to the chicken somehow.

"Incredible!" Milo commented.

"You guys… meet the Eversource." Jesse said.

So, it turns out that the Eversource was not an item or a block, but a living mob? Wow.

"What." Petra questioned, confused.

"No way." Lukas gawked.

"Yes, the spawn eggs." Ivor stated in understanding. "It's so simple."

But that still doesn't make the eggs any more efficient.

"So, the chicken lays the eggs, and the eggs, make monsters. And the loot from the monsters, made this place." Jesse observed.

Ivor kneeled down.

"Well, throw it in the mine cart and let's get out of here." He instructed. "We're still taking it, right?"

Fred had a bad feeling about taking this chicken from its home. What about the people?

"The chicken that the entire city depends on? Are we sure that's a good idea?" Lukas questioned, mirroring Fred's thoughts.

"What are you talking about? We need to bring it to the people. With it, we'll finally be free of the Founder!" Milo reminded.

"But, it doesn't create loot. It creates monsters. Are you ready to fight loads of mobs just to get a few measly gold ingots?" Fred asked. "In my opinion, maybe that thing is better off where it is right now."

"But that clucking thing is what we came for!" Ivor pointed out.

"Ivor, jeez. Lukas and Fred are right. We can't just steal, er, kidnap-" Jesse began.

"Chicken-nap?" Petra suggested.

"We can't just chicken-nap the Eversource." Jesse said, agreeing with Lukas and Fred. "It's the only way these people survive."

"What!?" Ivor pouted, scandalized. "But I thought that was the whole point of this adventure!"

Fred heard the door open. Before he could blink, a yellow blurring figure grabbed Petra, Ivor and Milo and threw them across the room, one by one. She moved to grab Fred, but he teleported a few blocks backward.

"I think not!" Fred said as he reappeared in purple ender particles. It was the Founder, and she did not look happy.

"I knew it! I knew you were here to steal from me!" She accused, glaring at Jesse, Lukas and Fred. Aiden and the Blaze Rods were behind her. Maya and Gill aiming their swords at Petra, Milo and Ivor.

"Augh. Pain." Ivor groaned.

"She's too fast." Milo added.

"No, no, no." Jesse began. "No one's stealing anything. The chicken, the Eversource is staying right here, where it belongs. Don't worry!"

"It's just like I told you, Founder." Aiden said. "They're here to steal the Eversource. Classic Order of the Stone."

The Founder stood up out of her combat pose. "You don't say."

"What! No! Don't believe them!" Ivor pleaded.

Fred placed a hand in-front of Jesse as he moved to make a retort, silencing him.

"Contrary to what you believe, we are not here to steal the Eversource." Fred stated matter-of-factly.

"You just expect me to believe a bunch of criminals?" The Founder asked. "Aiden warned me that you were a pack of thieves, and here you are, prepared to make off with the one thing our City depends on to survive!"

"Not so quick, Aiden!" Fred threatened, flashing his Admin eyes at Aiden as he moved toward a chest named 'Creeper'. Fred flashed blue-white and took off his human form disguise, showing his Admin form for the first time since Reuben's death, much to the shock and surprise of the Founder and the Blaze Rods.

Aiden blinked, recovering from his shock before grabbing something out of the chest. As the Founder turned around, she saw that he was holding a creeper egg. She gave a gasp of horror.

"Aiden? What are you doing?" She asked, having forgotten all about Fred's admin form.

Aiden ignored her and turned towards Jesse's group.

"Nice outfit! Too bad it won't stop this egg." He taunted, before throwing the creeper egg at the wall. Fred moved out of the way, pulling Jesse with him just as the creeper egg bounced off the wall, spawning a creeper.

The Founder pulled out two iron swords, but the creeper was too quick, managing to explode and knock the Founder off. Fred saw that she was hanging on for dear life. He moved to give her a helping hand.

Lukas began to wrestle with Aiden.

"I've got Aiden." He reassured. "Help save the Founder!"

"Oh, do you 'got' me, Lukas?" Jesse retorted. He moved over and helped Fred pull the Founder up.

"Thank you. Thank you." She panted.

Fred felt something rush past him. Turning around, he gave a look of horror as he saw Lukas falling over the edge. Time seemed to freeze as Lukas gave a look of horror. Fred immediately found himself back inside his nightmare of the Wither-Storm but instead of Reuben falling, it was Lukas. Just like all other nightmares he had, no matter how fast he ran, he could never catch up in time.

And then suddenly, Aiden kicked Jesse in the back, knocking him and the Founder off. That woke Fred out of his shock-induced trance.

And, without thinking. He jumped off. Eversource and Sky City be damned, he was going to save those three from dying.

* * *

Like it? Review. Don't like it, look up something else.

More to follow.


	4. Order Up - The Fall

Chapter 4 – The Fall

* * *

Disclaimer: If you have not read **Fred: Admin in Exile** yet. I suggest you read that story first before reading this one.

(Minecraft: Story Mode and its characters belong to Telltale Games, not me.)

* * *

(JESSE'S POV)

They were falling.

Jesse couldn't believe it, they had only just became heroes and now they were going to die.

And yet they continued to fall and fall and fall and fall while still alive. Both he and the Founder had stopped screaming.

"This is all your fault!" The Founder accused. "Thanks to you, we get to see what really happens when you fall off the islands!"

"Well, playing the blame game doesn't exactly do a lot of good right now. What does it matter?" Jesse reasoned.

"It matters because my entire city is doomed thanks to you!" The Founder responded. "Hmm, I can't decide whether I want our death to be painless for my sake or excruciating for yours!"

Much to Jesse's astonishment, as they passed through a cloud, they saw that they weren't falling into the void. Not even close to that, they were falling towards a normal biome not unlike the type of land seen in his own world. It seems Sky City was just really, really high in the sky.

"Land!" Jesse pointed out.

"Impossible." The Founder responded, just as surprised as Jesse was. "That's impossible! Jesse?"

Jesse pointed towards a sea of water below them. The two lavafalls that Ivor created were landing on top of it.

"There!" Jesse said.

"Can we get to it in time?" The Founder asked.

"It's gonna be close!"

Jesse went into a skydive, aiming for the water while avoiding the lavafalls. Once he saw that he was safely over the water, he cannonballed into the water.

As Jesse and the Founder surfaced, a third person landed into the water, completely startling Jesse. It was Fred.

"Fred?!" Jesse exclaimed in surprise.

"Don't ask. I thought you two were in danger and I followed." Fred explained.

Jesse, Fred and the Founder swam to shore. Where Lukas was waiting.

"Jesse? Fred? Holy crap, you guys are down here too?" Lukas asked.

"Lukas! You made it!" Jesse said.

"Yeah, only slightly worse for wear." Lukas responded, holding his left wrist and wincing. "Gotta say, Aiden's tougher than I remember. Got me pretty good."

"Lukas, I'm really sorry I didn't try to help you up there." Jesse apologized. "I only had a few seconds, everything was happening so fast."

"Nah, don't worry about it." Lukas shrugged it off. "Aiden was… stronger than I was expecting."

Fred tapped Jesse on the back.

"Thanks for attempting to help me save the Founder, though." Fred said.

"Uh, speaking of whom. Is she okay? She's just sort of… staring." Lukas commented.

"Er, lemme ask. Founder? Miss Founder?" Jesse called. The Founder didn't answer.

"I, uh… hope she's not in shock or something." Lukas continued.

"You, uh, doing okay over there?" Jesse asked.

"I just… I-I can't believe it." The Founder stammered. "This has been down here the whole time? I forbade anyone to look for land below us. It was too dangerous, a lost cause."

"Well, 'land' is gonna be a pretty big game-changer for you guys." Jesse stated. "I mean, it's going to change everything!"

"Yes." The Founder agreed.

Lukas whistled.

"Look at this place. Totally untouched biomes, all around us." Lukas commented.

"Yes, it's all a little overwhelming." The Founder added. "What… what do I do now?"

"Well, how about you start with a few deep breaths?" Lukas suggested.

"Exactly. You don't want to hyperventilate." Fred said.

"Yeah, getting back up to Sky City might be a little exhausting." Lukas agreed.

"Getting back up. My word, you're right, we need to do that." The Founder said, looking up at the sky. "I hadn't even thought that far ahead yet."

A flaming zombie landed next to them, poofing into smoke. Looking back up, Jesse saw a whole bunch of flaming mobs coming from above them.

"What's going on up there?" The Founder panicked.

"Aiden's made some big mistakes. He's probably in completely over his head by now." Jesse commented.

"I can't believe Aiden could be so stupid!" Lukas responded.

"Ah, yes. The bitter irony. The idiot probably thinks we're dead. Fun fact; this isn't the first time I've tricked other people into thinking I'm dead." Fred admitted.

"I can't leave my subjects in whatever trouble they're in." The Founder said. "Jesse? Will you please help me get back to Sky City? Stop Aiden?"

"Of course I'll help you. You're the Founder." Jesse accepted.

"Thank you, Jesse." The Founder said. "And please, call me Isa."

"Okay, getting back up… getting back up." Jesse wondered out-loud.

"Ahem. You forget who you're talking to?" Fred said, raising an eyebrow.

Jesse facepalmed to himself. How could he forget about Fred's abilities?

"Well, guys? Ready?" Jesse asked.

"Yes. I think so." Isa answered.

"I, uh. I think I actually gotta sit this one out, Jesse." Lukas explained. "Aiden got me pretty good, I'm just not sure I'm up for towering all the way back up there."

"Well, over-exerting yourself isn't going to grant you any favors." Fred responded. "You stay here while we go and deal with Aiden."

"Thanks, Fred." Lukas said. He walked over to a tree and sat down.

"There you go, buddy." Jesse assured.

"Thank you for trying to help. It was very noble." Isa appraised.

"Hey, what's with the 'last goodbye' tone?" Lukas questioned. "I'll see you guys when you get back. Oh, and give Aiden another punch for me."

"Will do. C'mon." Jesse gestured.

Fred raised his arms, and Jesse felt himself weightless. He and Isa began to float up the ground.

"Hope you aren't afraid of heights." Fred said to Isa. "Because this isn't going to be very pleasant."

And he brought his arm down. Jesse found himself moving upwards at a fast rate. Isa gave a scream as they shot off in the air.

As they floated upwards, it began to rain. It continued for about 30 seconds and then they landed on top of the dirt bridge. Fred appeared in purple particles next to them.

"Yep. Aiden's gone crazy." Fred pointed out.

There was Sky City, partially destroyed as ghasts wreaked havoc over it.

"Oh, no. We need to get in there. Now." Jesse said, and the three began moving.

A ghast targeted them.

"Go go go! Don't stop!" Jesse ordered.

It flashed red then poofed into white smoke as Fred strangled it.

They arrived at the main gates to Sky City. There, they were able to witness the chaos and destruction that Aiden was causing.

"Whoa! That was crazy! You okay?" Jesse asked.

Isa stepped forward, a horrified expression on her face.

"What have they done?!"

People were running everywhere as mobs attacked them from every angle. To their right, Zombies were moving toward an unarmed guard.

"Back! Back you monsters, augh. Help me!"

"He needs our help!" Isa pointed out.

Jesse ran in and killed a zombie with his enchanted sword. Isa pulled out two swords and made a warrior cry as she slayed the both of them.

"What is going on here?" Isa asked.

"The city is under attack by monsters, ma'am! Everywhere! They seem to be coming from inside the palace itself!" The guard explained.

At the entrance, Jesse saw Maya and Gill throwing spider spawn eggs.

"Aiden. Come on, we need to stop him." Jesse said, walking toward the entrance.

"I'm sorry, Jesse. But I have to save my people." Isa insisted. Jesse nodded.

"Take care of yourself out there, okay?"

"And to you as well." Isa responded, before engaging a few mobs.

"Jesse! You're alive!" Milo's voice called out, grabbing Jesse and Fred's attention. "Please, can you help us."

"Hang tight, Milo!" Jesse said as he engaged the skeletons that were attacking them. He killed them with his sword.

As Milo ran outside, they saw a spider-jockey approaching them. Milo ran over and attacked the skeleton with his sword while Jesse finished off the spider.

"You are very quick on your feet!" Milo complimented. "But with all seriousness, how are you alive? I saw you go over the edge."

"Quick version. You know how you thought there was nothing but void below you?" Jesse questioned.

"Yes?"

"Yeah, that was wrong. There's land."

"You speak truthfully, my friend? Well, I can't wait to hear all about it later!" Milo responded.

"I gotta get to the palace."

"Thank you, my friend. I will see you on the other side." Milo said.

Jesse ran towards the palace. Fred behind him.

"How do you like that? Huh? BLAZE RODS." Jesse heard Gill exclaim.

Maya threw an egg.

"Boom! Egg!"

It landed and spawned a spider next to Petra. She immediately killed it, before noticing Jesse.

"Jesse!? You're alive?"

But Jesse had no time to answer, for three ghasts appeared behind him. They each launched fireballs at him.

Before Jesse could react, he was tackled out of the way by Ivor.

"Aiden has taken over the palace." Ivor explained. "He's holed up in the throne room throwing those spawn eggs everywhere! No one can get inside!"

"We need to stop him." Jesse reminded. Ivor got an idea.

"I know! Jesse! Take one of these!" Ivor offered, holding out three potions. "They're all locally sourced and hand-crafted. I use only the best ingredients!"

"Gimme a potion of speed." Jesse said.

"Here!" Ivor handed a bluish colored potion to him.

Jesse uncorked the potion and downed the whole bottle.

At once, everything seemed to slow down to slow motion, except Jesse was still able to move just fine. He took a glance at Ivor, who slowly nodded.

"Gotta go fast." Jesse said, then ran past everyone and approached the front door. He punched Maya and Gill before running inside. To everyone else, all they saw was a purple blur rushing inside the palace. Once the potions effects wore off, Fred blinked in behind Jesse.

"I'll be standing here in case anything goes wrong. Ready?" Fred asked.

"Ready." Jesse responded.

Jesse entered the throne room.

"Back down and get out of my face, Reggie!" Aiden's voice threatened.

"You're delusional, Aiden! The people of Sky City will never bow to you." Reginald yelled back. "You killed the Founder!"

"Yeah? Well, you're gonna be next if you don't SHUT UP!" Aiden retorted.

Jesse unsheathed his sword.

"Aiden! You've lost." He announced.

"I saw you fall! You went down!" Aiden exclaimed, disbelievingly.

"You're alive!? YOU'RE ALIVE!" Reginald cried out in belief. "Is the Founder with you? I-"

Aiden threw the creeper egg at Reginald, knocking him down as a creeper spawned.

"What the-"

The creeper exploded, throwing Reginald back.

"Reginald!" Jesse cried out.

"NOT ONE MORE STEP!" Aiden threatened. "I've killed you once, I can do it again."

"Just you and me, Aiden. Just you and me now." Jesse said, brandishing his sword.

"JUST, DIE ALREADY!" Aiden roared as he threw a blaze egg, spawning a blaze. "Should've left while you had the chance!"

As the blaze charged Jesse, he dodged out of the way. Jesse jumped up and killed the blaze with his sword. But he wasn't out of danger yet, Aiden was engaging him. Jesse got up and blocked him.

"This was supposed to be my world! And you ruined it!" Aiden accused.

"Listen to yourself, that's insane!"

Jesse blocked his attack.

"Why couldn't you have left well enough alone?!" Aiden charged. Jesse kicked him back into the throne.

Aiden caught Jesse by surprise by throwing another blaze egg and running off.

"Get back here!" Jesse ordered.

Jesse managed to lead the Blaze outside, where it was taken out by the rain. He saw Aiden standing in the distance, on a cobblestone platform. He slowly approached with his sword.

"You just can't stand to see someone else in the spotlight, can you?" Aiden growled. "You just can't let anyone else win!"

"It just drives you crazy to see someone else succeed, doesn't it?!"

"Aiden, I am going to kick your butt!" Jesse promised.

"I can't wait to see you try." Aiden responded, with an evil smirk. He charged again. As per usual, Jesse blocked it. They continued to clash their swords against each other until Jesse got the upper hand and with a downward swing, sent Aiden's sword flying off the edge.

As Jesse approached Aiden, he put his arms up in surrender.

"Wait wait wait. Hang on, hang on. I… I surrender. I surrender." Aiden surrendered. "We can talk about this, right?"

Aiden pulled out the glowing flint and steel and threw it towards Jesse.

"Here, here! You want your flint and steel back, huh? Take it! It's yours! Just, please. Don't hurt me." Aiden pleaded.

Jesse bent down and picked up the flint and steel.

"You did it." Reginald said, approaching behind Jesse. Fred behind him. "Jesse, we need to get out of here."

Reginald was right. Aiden may be defeated, but Jesse still heard chaos going on at the other side of the palace.

"What do you want to do with him?" Reginald asked.

"Please. This place is getting worse by the minute. You can't just leave me here. Take me with you." Aiden begged.

"After everything you've done? I'm not sure you deserve that kind of mercy." Reginald replied.

Jesse grabbed Aiden and threw him in the waterfall.

As Aiden was swept toward the edge, he started to panic.

"NO! NO! NOOOO!"

And Aiden was swept over the edge. As there was land beneath them, Jesse had no regrets in doing that. Jesse gave Reginald a shrug before walking back inside the palace, walking back out the front door towards the now destroyed courtyard.

He saw Fred float up in the air.

"ENOUGH IS ENOUGH!" Fred bellowed as he slammed his fists down on the ground. Every single mob disappeared in purple particles.

"Jesse!" Petra called out. Jesse saw that she and Ivor had caught Maya and Gill.

"Where's that punk Aiden?" Ivor asked.

"We fought, and he fell down one of these waterfalls." Jesse explained, showing no remorse within his voice.

Petra opened her mouth in horror at that.

"Petra. Close your mouth. You're not a fish." Fred mock-scolded.

Isa approached Reginald, who was behind Jesse.

"You retrieved the Eversource." She said.

"Yes, ma'am." Reginald answered.

"Everyone, stay together!" Milo commanded, leading the members of Build Club towards Jesse. "Jesse! There you are!"

"Jesse, the situation is getting out of hand. Sky City is too badly damaged to be rebuilt." Isa informed.

"Well, I guess we could jump for it." Jesse suggested, eyeing the waterfall. "The waterfalls! The waterfalls can take us to safety!"

"What?! Are you crazy!" The nervous guy from before questioned. "The waterfalls will just take us into the void!"

"We'll die if we fall down there!" A second citizen agreed.

"But there is nothing but rubble up here." The dark-skinned rebel argued.

"You all just need to trust me, okay?" Jesse said. "Everyone just watch me and follow my lead, okay?"

He jumped into the waterfall. Fred immediately followed.

"Jesse has done nothing but help us so far!" Milo announced. "I will show you just how much I believe in Jesse's word."

And Milo followed. Isa jumped in next. That seemed to convince Sky City that it was safe to jump in. Everyone else followed, until they were all swept off the island.

In no time at all, they landed in the pool of water at the bottom of the water falls.

"You weren't lying. There's ground everywhere!" Reginald commented.

Everyone seemed to have similar reactions to the land that Isa had as they swam to shore.

"Jesse. I cannot thank you enough." Isa said. "You have saved us all."

"So what do we do now?" Reginald asked. "Everything's just so different. And scary."

"Just take it slow, okay?" Jesse suggested. "You guys have been isolated for so long, you don't want to get overwhelmed by all this 'real world'."

Maya and Gill landed in the water a short distance away.

"Heh. I wonder what happened to Aiden." Petra said.

"Hey, guards?" Lukas' voice called out. "Check out what washed up right next to me."

Aiden was kneeling down with his hands in the air next to Lukas.

"Ugh." Aiden groaned.

"Freeze, criminals! You're not going anywhere." A guard growled as they apprehended them.

"Now, this is just speculation, but I'm guessing they have some regrets." Petra speculated. "I knew they wouldn't get away."

"Heh, what goes around comes around, am I right guys?" Jesse commented.

Ivor and Petra nodded in agreement.

Fred approached them.

"Well, I'm pretty sure some jail time isn't out of the question." He added.

The guards led Aiden past Jesse's group. Aiden just gave a glare. Fred did a 'I'm watching you' gesture.

"Attention! Attention!" Reginald called out.

"Hello, hello. Everyone, please?" Isa began. "This is your Founder speaking. Now that we're all safe, we need to organize. Start planning our new community."

Milo pushed past Ivor and Jesse.

"Are you listening to yourself? That's insane!" Milo protested. "We were prisoners long enough on that island in the sky! It is time for us to run free! Build whatever we please!"

"Wow, those two just cannot get along." Petra commented.

"Jesse. I cannot allow my people to be influenced by this… naïve idealist!" Isa reasoned.

"Bah! I'm sure I DO look like a naïve idealist through the eyes of an oppressive dictator!" Milo retorted.

"Hey! Both of you! Fighting isn't going to solve anything!" Jesse stepped in.

"It will if I win!" Milo continued.

Isa rolled her eyes. "Oh, of course you'd think that way."

She facepalmed in frustration.

"You don't understand, it will be night soon, and that is when the monsters come out!" She explained. "If we don't prepare, we'll be in danger!"

"You're just making excuses to control our behavior, just like before!" Milo argued. "We must trust in ourselves! Be able to learn from our mistakes! The people need to build!"

"Of course the people can build, but we need a system!" Isa insisted. "Some rules! Rules aren't bad!"

"Well, I think you're both right." Jesse said, settling the argument. "You don't want to just run around with no plan, but you can't schedule and organize everything, either. People need to be free to try new things, but you gotta be safe about it."

"I suppose I still have much to learn, thank you Jesse." Milo conceded.

"I don't understand yet, but I trust you." Isa said. "Well, Jesse. I suppose the era of Sky City is over."

"We may disagree about how to run this place." Milo continued. "But I thank you for everything you have done."

"I guarantee that we will be telling stories about your visit for many, many years to come." Isa assured.

"'The day that Sky City was liberated!'"

Fred joined the conversation.

"Just one request though, if any of you happen to find yourselves in our world, you must swear not to reveal my superpowers to anybody." Fred requested. "You see, I may have a few… enemies and I'd rather not have them find out I'm still alive."

"I promise." Isa promised.

"I give my solemn oath." Milo added, giving a military salute. They walked away.

"You know something?" Lukas began. "She was a little scary at first, but she's alright."

"I'm gonna miss that crazy guy." Petra admitted. "I guess we should prepare for nightfall, too. Without another portal, we're stuck here."

"True. I hadn't thought of that." Fred said. "Been a while since I've had to start from square one."

"Ugh! Just when I thought my days of punching trees were behind me." Ivor groaned.

"That reminds me, while I was digging myself a shelter, I mighta sorta… found a portal leading back to our home world." Lukas confessed.

Ivor rounded on Lukas.

"AND YOU DIDN'T SAY ANYTHING?!" Ivor shouted.

"Yeah, I'm actually going to have to agree with Ivor on this one." Petra agreed.

"Yeah, c'mon Lukas. Learn to speak up." Fred said, poking Lukas on the back.

"Did I not mention it earlier? Could've sworn I said something." Lukas said.

"No! You didn't." Ivor growled.

"I guess the moment just never presented itself. Lead the way Lukas." Jesse said.

Lukas began to lead them to the portal, only to be cut short by the Eversource bouncing in-front of them.

"Oh, hi." Jesse greeted.

Isa appeared next to them.

"Ah! There you are. So sorry about her."

"That's okay. Looks like she's having fun running around." Jesse said.

"Yes, I think she took it pretty well when I told her she didn't need to be the Eversource anymore." Isa agreed. "What are we going to do with you now, huh? What are you going to do now? Besides continue to be adorable, of course. But that was a given."

"Funny thing. I actually owned a pet chicken once, named Waffles." Fred said.

"What happened?" Isa asked.

"I was betrayed by an old friend, that's what happened." Fred responded.

"After so long being 'The Founder' and 'The Eversource' now we can just be 'Isa' and her best friend." Isa said, taking the crown off the chicken. "Benedict."

"That's a boy's name." Ivor retorted.

"What a closed-minded attitude. Jesse? I would be honored if you would take this, as a small token of our gratitude."

Isa gave Jesse the tiny crown.

"Thank you."

"Come along, Benedict." Isa said. "We have a lot of adventures ahead of us."

And they walked off.

"Well, there goes the Eversource. Off to cluck and peck at seeds for the rest of its valuable life." Ivor commented.

But Jesse wasn't listening. He noticed a group of pigs and immediately thought of Reuben.

"Jesse? You okay?" Lukas asked.

"Oh, I just saw those pigs and… y'know." Jesse responded.

"Oh, yes." Ivor responded.

"He would be really happy to know you're still having adventures like this." Petra assured.

"I still feel guilty for what happened with-" Fred began.

"Nuh-uh. No. Not this again." Jesse cut him off. They walked towards a giant hole that apparently held the exit portal.

"See? One portal back home." Lukas pointed out.

Sure enough, there was the same portal framework that was back in the temple where they found the flint and steel.

"Ugh, I just can't wait to put this whole world behind us." Ivor said.

"Aww, is someone being grumpy?" Petra teased.

"No! A little!" Ivor admitted. "I was just hoping for a real treasure is all."

Petra gave a chuckle.

"Livestock's no proper treasure." Ivor added. "Although I wonder what would happen if you put that crown on a different chicken."

"Come on guys, let's go home." Jesse said. He pulled out his flint and steel and lit the portal. They managed to not fall over this time.

"Wait'll Axel and Olivia hear where we've been. They'll never believe… it." Jesse said.

But there was just one problem. They weren't home, but instead. They were in a gigantic hallway full of different colored portals.

"Ugh!" Fred groaned. "I am seriously not in the mood for this."

"That's… not what I was expecting." Jesse admitted.

* * *

Author's Notes: Well, that just happened.

Don't worry. We haven't gotten to the interesting parts yet. They're still coming.

Like it? Review. Don't like it, look up another story.

Until next time.


	5. A Portal to Mystery - The Invitation

Chapter 5 – The Invitation

* * *

Disclaimer: If you have not read **Fred: Admin in Exile** yet. I suggest you read that story first before reading this one.

(Minecraft: Story Mode and its characters belong to Telltale Games, not me.)

* * *

(RECAP)

Being famous isn't always fun and games. Sometimes you need to step up and take responsibility. Other times, there are people who aren't exactly happy at the thought of you being famous.

When your rival turns a whole city against you, you find a way to join a group of rebels. When faced with a dilemma, you find a way to come up with a solution that works best for everybody.

But, when the exit portal to that world leads you to a hallway of portals instead of the world you came from, the question remains.

Which portal do you go through?

* * *

(FRED'S POV)

After choosing to jump through a green colored portal, Fred and the others found themselves in a graveyard.

"Okay guys, I'm seeing grass, forests, lots of ground in all directions." Jesse said. "All good signs so far…"

Except for one thing.

This world had two moons.

Fred saw Ivor point that out to Jesse.

"Aha." Jesse observed.

"Verdict says; definitely not our world. You owe me two iron, Lukas." Petra said. "Pay up!"

"Okay, okay. Here." Lukas responded, passing two iron ingots to Petra.

"Told you it was a dumb bet." Ivor stated, smugly.

"Cut the worried faces, guys. Whatever this place throws at us, it'll be no problem!" Jesse assured.

"I hope you're right." Lukas said. "I was just… ugh. I'm just worried about Axel and Olivia.

"What? Why?" Petra asked.

"Well, if they followed us back to that Old Builder temple and went through the portal." Lukas continued.

"They would arrive in Sky City, to find that it is a complete wreck." Ivor finished.

"Yeah."

"At least we already built them the bridge." Petra reassured.

"The bridge that was destroyed by mobs, you mean." Fred corrected.

"Nah, I don't think they would have followed us. They had a lot going on in town." Jesse pointed out. "We'll get home and they'll be super jealous they missed out on all this."

"Well, I for one vote that we not be so hasty to try and get out of here. Who knows what sorts of treasures this new world could hold?" Ivor said. "Besides, unless the next portal is disguised as a tombstone, I'm not seeing it anywhere near here."

Meanwhile, Fred saw Jesse approach a book on an iron tome at the far end of the graveyard.

"You guys see some sort of… shape over there?" Jesse asked.

"Yeah, what is that?" Petra questioned.

"Let's find out." Jesse suggested.

They walked over to the book. Jesse grabbed it.

"It says 'Invitation.'" Jesse read. "And then 'Read immediately! Your life depends on it!' Ahem. 'Greetings Traveler-'"

But Jesse was interrupted by a horde of Zombies coming their way. Petra killed one with her sword.

"Keep reading, Jesse!" She instructed. "We've got your back!"

"'I humbly invite you to my mansion for an evening of food and festivity with your fellow adventurers.'" Jesse continued, kicking a zombie as he read on.

"That's… odd." Lukas commented.

"Yeah, weird right? Whoa!" Jesse said.

Meanwhile, Fred was kicking butt using his powers. The mobs didn't even stand a chance against him. Finishing off a zombie, he offered to keep reading.

"Give me the book." Fred instructed.

Jesse threw the book to Fred, who floated 10 feet off the ground. He opened the book in one hand while using the other to strangle zombies.

"Fred! Anytime now? Surely an Admin like you can read, right?" Ivor impatiently asked.

"Hey! You try reading with one hand while strangling mobs with the other!" Fred snapped. "Just give me a moment while I find Jesse's place… uh, got it!"

Fred continued to read where Jesse left off.

"'Come to my home on the hill, just follow the path. Please look out for zombies. Sincerely, The Host.'" Fred finished.

"Nice warning." Lukas retorted, sarcastically.

"Come on! There's the path!" Jesse pointed out. He began to run.

Fred dropped onto the ground and followed the others in the direction where Jesse pointed.

"I must say, this is the highest concentration of zombies I've ever seen in one place." Ivor remarked.

"You think this 'Host' is going to be legit, Jesse?" Lukas asked.

"What makes you ask that?" Fred questioned.

"Well, because this place hasn't exactly been friendly so far." Lukas explained.

"Boy, I hope so. Wouldn't mind getting out of the zombies for a bit." Jesse added.

In the distance, Fred spotted a huge mansion. All signs are point to that being the place they need to go.

"I'm going to go out on a limb and say that's the place we're looking for." Ivor said, mirroring Fred's thoughts.

"Race you guys there." Petra challenged.

"Hope that fighting helped you work up an appetite, Petra. Because you're about to eat my dust." Jesse responded.

"Big words, Jesse."

Fred decided to surprise them and get a head start.

"Well, if you want to be the first one there, how about you not stand around like a bunch of idiots." Fred suggested, already a short distance away.

And they began to run after him.

Fred ran for a little bit, Petra and Lukas on his tail. He strangled zombies in his way and kicked butt in general, until he saw Jesse and Ivor in the water, being washed towards a waterfall.

He moved to help them out, but to his relief, they got out of the waterfall okay. Knowing that Petra and Lukas can handle themselves, he moved to their side.

There were more hordes of zombies up ahead. Continuing onwards, they didn't need to fight the zombies, for the skeletons on the bridge had terrible aim and they were hitting the zombies instead of them, taking them out.

Fred saw Petra slide in and take out the skeletons. After dealing with a few more zombies, the three approached a wall.

"Execute Maneuver 66!" Jesse instructed. "Stairs!"

Digging through the wall, they created a make-shift staircase, leading to the top of the wall.

And at last, they arrived at the mansion.

"Woo! Nailed it!" Jesse panted.

"Okay, okay. You won that one, Jesse." Petra conceded.

"Let's maybe… get inside the mansion before we pat ourselves on the back too much, shall we?" Ivor suggested.

Fred flashed blue-white and put on his human disguise, not wanting to bring any attention to himself due to his powers.

But there were even more zombies up ahead, guarding the front door.

"That front door's definitely a no-go." Petra observed.

A zombie turned around and spotted them.

"Stick with me, guys!" Jesse instructed, leading them towards the side of the mansion.

As they reached the side of the mansion, Fred caught a glimpse of a figure inside the window. He was wearing a black-bluish suit and was wearing what appeared to be a white pumpkin on his head. That didn't make any sense, there was no such thing as 'White Pumpkins'. Two glowing yellow pupils were staring back at the group. He turned around and walked away.

Fred resisted the urge to flash his Admin eyes at the figure. It wouldn't do to have them panic and run off before Fred could figure out who this guy was.

"The heck-?" Jesse exclaimed. Seems he saw the figure too.

"What? What'd you see?" Petra inquired. "You just… gasped. Like, like you'd seen something."

"I think… I saw… our host." Jesse said between breaths. "He had a white pumpkin for a head."

"White Pumpkin? No such thing as white pumpkins!" Ivor stated.

"Let's save the agricultural discussions for inside, okay?" Lukas suggested.

They arrived at the back of the mansion, to find no entrance whatsoever.

"Great! There's no door back here!" Ivor observed. "How are we supposed to get in?!"

"Well. There are windows up there. Perhaps we could punch a few trees, build up and smash our way in through there?" Fred suggested.

"Good plan!" Ivor said.

And they punched a few trees, getting wood blocks in which they used to build up to the window. Removing the bottom part of the stairs so the mobs can't follow them, they approached the window.

"And now my inventory's full of wood blocks." Petra said.

"Hey, you never know when those'll come in handy." Jesse pointed out. "Looks like some kind of kitchen in there."

"Then break the window and get us into the blasted place!" Ivor ordered.

Jesse punched the window, breaking it.

"Hope the Host doesn't mind us breaking their window." Jesse said.

"I'm sure he'll find it in his heart to forgive us." Petra assured.

"I don't know about that, Petra. Judging by who we saw outside." Fred responded.

And they walked inside.

"Wow. Some kitchen." Jesse commented.

But it seems they weren't alone inside the mansion. Voices were approaching the door, seemingly in an argument.

"TorqueDawg, you know I don't care if you took it. Just give it back."

"And I'm telling you for the last time, Sparklez. I didn't take the stupid thing!" A less pleasant voice growled.

The door opened, revealing two people. One was wearing a white shirt with a black jacket and black pants with white stripes on either side. He had a beard and red sunglasses, as well as black hair. Fred assumed this was 'Sparklez.' The second guy was a muscularly built man who was wearing a sleeveless cyan shirt with black pants and red-gold shoes with black sunglasses. He had long, brown hair and a beard. This must be 'TorqueDawg.'

"I think we could avoid a lot of unpleasantness if—" Sparklez began.

TorqueDawg pushed past Sparklez.

"WHAT THE—" TorqueDawg exclaimed, seeing the group in front of them.

"Hi!" Jesse greeted.

"Oh. Ha, ha, ha, very, very funny. Show up super late, make us all sit and wonder what the heck is going on." TorqueDawg rudely accused. He pulled out a book. "This is your house, right?"

The group looked at each other and shrugged, confused.

"'Cuz if it is, we've all been waiting for like, HOURS! IT'S RUDE!" TorqueDawg hypocritically pointed out, sounding just as rude himself.

"Now easy, TorqueDawg." Sparklez said.

Fred pulled out the invitation book that he still had on him.

"We have an invitation too! What's going on here?" Fred asked, holding out the book.

"Darn! Sorry for the language. That wasn't about you getting an invitation. Just that I was hoping you could explain things." Sparklez groaned. He pointed towards TorqueDawg. "This is TorqueDawg."

"Sup."

"And I'm Captain Sparklez." Sparklez introduced himself. "Though, maybe you know that already."

Maybe this guy was a famous guy in their world, but Fred had never seen nor heard of this guy before in his life.

"'Captain Sparklez?' I've got, like, nine million fans?" Sparklez continued, confused.

"'Captain Sparklez?' Are you saying that with a 'z'?" Petra asked.

"Petra! Show some respect." Ivor snapped. "The man's a captain."

"Yeah, I actually have no idea who you are." Jesse admitted.

"Oh, really? Like, no idea? Like, none?" Sparklez questioned.

"Nope. Sorry. But, uh, my name's Jesse." Jesse introduced. "That over there is Lukas, Fred, Petra and Ivor."

"Charmed." Ivor said.

"'Jesse?' That's a girl's name." TorqueDawg snorted. He approached Jesse. "What are you guys anyway? Some sort of Loser Patrol?"

"Watch it." Fred warned.

TorqueDawg didn't seem to take any notice.

"Aw, come on. That was hilarious." TorqueDawg defended.

"You would know all about Loser Patrols wouldn't you, loser?" Jesse retorted, voice dipping with sarcasm.

"Whoa. You fronting right now? Is that what's going on?" TorqueDawg shouted, getting really close to Jesse's face. He pushed past him. "What've you got, like 12 fans?"

Perhaps Fred should show this guy his Admin form, see how tough he is then.

"TorqueDawg, cool it!" Sparklez ordered. "That sea of zombies has us all trapped, so we just need to try our best to get along."

"WORST! DAY! EVER!" TorqueDawg exploded.

"Hm. All these other people as rude as you?" Jesse sarcastically questioned.

"Watch yourself, little dude." TorqueDawg threatened. "I tell you what, the minute all them weird zombies are gone, TorqueDawg is outta here!"

"Okay, so the sea of zombies isn't normal. Good to hear." Jesse said.

"Two moons is normal though, right?" Petra asked.

"Um… the moons? Yeah." Sparklez responded, confused.

"Why don't you know about this stuff? You from, like, out of town or something?" TorqueDawg questioned.

"Listen, TorqueDawg! That attitude of yours is not going to grant yourself any favors." Fred pointed out, approaching him.

And right on cue, the lights went out, leaving the room in pitch black darkness.

A dispenser sound was heard, seemingly firing arrows.

"Something touched my foot! Who touched my foot!" Ivor shouted, amidst the chaos.

The lights switched back on, to greet the entire group with a horrifying sight.

On the floor, lay TorqueDawg. He was covered from head to toe in arrows. Not just arrows but ones that seemed to be tipped with a greenish potion.

TorqueDawg winced in pain as he looked up.

"Hey Jesse. Jesse, c'mere." TorqueDawg said, gesturing for Jesse to come closer.

Jesse leaned in.

"You've got a girl's name." TorqueDawg stated, before he went limb and poofed into white smoke, leaving behind a few items.

"TorqueDawg? TORQUEDAWG!?" Sparklez panicked.

"'Jesse' isn't just a girl's name." Jesse corrected.

But Sparklez wasn't listening, he was in full hysterics.

"All those arrows! His inventory, everywhere! How did that? Who? One minute he's alive, the next, gone! Poof!"

Jesse grabbed onto Sparklez.

"Sparklez, I know you're freaking out right now, but you've got to pull yourself together!" Jesse pointed out.

"Okay, okay. You're right. Woo. You're right." Sparklez agreed.

Fred saw a dispenser in the ceiling. He stepped forward.

"Everyone stand back." Fred instructed. "Let's see what's in this inventory."

Fred took a look.

"Gunpowder, redstone dust, leather pants. I don't see anything valuable here." Fred observed.

The floor opened up, dropping the items into hoppers.

"Hmm. Seems the floor here is a matched set with the arrow dispenser in the ceiling." Fred continued to observe.

"But, you saw his stuff. Like you said, there wasn't anything worth stealing." Petra pointed out.

"Perhaps it was simply to dispose of the evidence." Ivor said.

Fred picked up the arrow with the green substance on it.

"Potions were never my specialty. So Ivor, what do you make of it?" Fred asked, handing the arrow to Ivor.

Ivor gave the arrow a sniff.

"Hmm. Smells like… yes! Potion of Poison." Ivor deduced.

"Oh, is it a t-tipped arrow?" Sparklez questioned. "Oh, I've heard of those. They're… they're still pretty new."

Ivor waved the arrow around.

"Using potions to make arrows, the possibilities are fascinating." He continued.

Jesse turned toward Sparklez.

"You say you know about these… 'tipped arrows'. Anything else you know that you're not telling us?" Jesse questioned.

"You're not implying what I think you're implying, are you? Because I had nothing to do with this! Nothing!" Sparklez defended. "Could've sworn I saw someone doing a tutorial on how to make those not too long ago. But my nerves are too shot to remember who right now."

"Well, let me know if it comes back to you." Jesse said, with a wink.

"Hello? Everything okay in here?" A female voice asked, entering the room. She had long pink hair with a fair skin tone and was wearing a dark blue school uniform. "Whoa! What's with the crowd?"

"I, uh. I was just about to get everyone together to tell them at once." Sparklez said, leaving the room.

"Okay?"

Pink-hair looked at Fred and the others.

"Hang on a minute! It's you. I recognize you!" She said.

"Excuse me?" Lukas asked.

"It's a long story, but that's actually impossible. There's no way we could have met before." Jesse agreed.

"I'll show you. Follow me." Pink-hair instructed.

"Um… okay." Petra said. They began to follow.

Pink-hair led them out towards the main area of the mansion. Where a red-haired figure-

ROMEO!

Fred's heart almost stopped. He was busted now. This was it. There's no faking his death this time.

He closed his eyes, ready for the worst, but it never came. Opening one eye, he saw that 'Romeo' had not reacted to his presence. But something was off. The skin wasn't dark grey, the eyes weren't glowing, and this figure was a female, not a male.

Fred sighed in relief upon that revelation. It wasn't Romeo, just a person with very similar hair-color.

"Lizzie! Hi! Did you see all of these new- Oh, you've got them with you." Red-head greeted.

Looking around the room, Fred was taken by surprise. Around them, there were portraits of people, but what was more concerning that some of these portraits were of Fred, Jesse and the rest of their group. Fred saw himself and Jesse's portraits above the front door. Jesse was standing with his right hand on his waist, facing slightly off-center. Fred was standing completely center, in his human form, with his left hand on his waist and his right hand raised slightly. (See A/N.)

"Well, first it was just the portraits of the people already here, then poof… you guys." Red-head explained.

"Whoa. That's… unexpected." Jesse commented.

"Yeah, no kidding." Petra agreed.

"They're absolutely exquisite! Perfect!" Ivor remarked.

"Well, not 'perfect'." Lukas argued. Fred could see why. It seems Lukas' portrait was a little messed up around the nose section.

"Absolutely perfect." Ivor insisted.

"Must've been when we showed up." Petra said. "Flattering how well they captured our likenesses."

Looking around, Fred saw more portraits of various people. He saw Red-head holding a sword against the ground. A guy wearing a yellow hoodie, sitting on a chair. Lizzie with one foot on top of TNT. A male brunette wearing goggles, standing in front of a minecart. A female brunette with a striped shirt sitting on a chair and Sparklez. It was unnerving, to say the least.

"This is so ridiculously creepy." Jesse commented.

"Right? At first, I was like, 'Oh cool. Fan art. Flattering.' But the more I thought about it, 'creepy' is definitely right." Red-head agreed.

And TorqueDawg's portrait was on the right side of Sparklez's portrait. However, this one had a huge red X crossed through it.

"Well. That's definitely not a good sign." Jesse said.

"Come on everyone, let's huddle up in the dining room." Sparklez said, returning with Goggles, Striped-Shirt and Yellow hoodie. Looking at him in person, Fred saw that it was a cat hoodie.

"I can't wait to hear the big news!" Goggles said.

"Me neither." Striped-Shirt agreed.

"Ooh, I hope there's cake." Cat hoodie added.

"Guess not." Petra responded.

"Come on. Let's do this." Sparklez said, leading them into the dining room.

"Come on, Winslow." Red-head said, gesturing her Calico cat to follow.

* * *

Inside the dining room.

"Here, let me introduce you all properly." Sparklez said. He pointed to Red-head and Lizzie. "You guys already met Cassie Rose and LDShadowLady."

"But my friends call me Lizzie." Lizzie corrected.

Sparklez pointed to Striped-Shirt, Cat hoodie and Goggles.

"This is StacyPlays, Stampy Cat and that's Dan. 'The Diamond Minecart.'"

Wait a minute, didn't Dan have brunette hair out in the lounge. So why is his hair cyan now? Petra seemed to notice too.

"When did your hair change color? Wasn't it…?"

"It's funny." Sparklez continued. "Before you guys showed up, we all knew each other here. Their names are Jesse, Fred, Petra, Lukas and Ivor."

"You said there was news? Is it good? Good news?" Dan asked.

"Ah, yeah. It's um, bad news. I'm afraid." Sparklez said, before taking a deep breath. "TorqueDawg is dead."

At once, everyone gasped.

"Good heavens." Stampy exclaimed.

"Oh no." Cassie gasped.

"Wait, what?" Dan stuttered.

"But TorqueDawg was so tough, there was nothing that could take him down! What happened?" Stacy asked.

"Yeah, what on earth is going on here, Sparklez?" Dan agreed.

Jesse pulled out the tipped arrow.

"These are what got him."

"Tipped arrows?" Lizzie asked, confused.

"Does this mean someone set a trap for TorqueDawg? That's nasty." Stacy commented.

"Yup." Fred responded.

Dan sat down.

"I can't believe TorqueDawg's gone! Just like that!"

"So, what happened to his stuff?" Stacy asked.

"Whoa! How can you say that?" Cassie responded, scandalized.

"What? It's a valid question." Stacy defended, nervously.

"Come on everyone, come on. Don't get greedy!" Stampy instructed.

"Just… I want to know what happened. For curiosity's sake." Stacy said.

"His stuff just disappeared. Went down this weird hole in the floor." Jesse stated.

"Are we just supposed to take your word for that?" Stampy asked.

"Guys, I saw it too. Jesse was poking around in TorqueDawg's stuff right before it got sucked into a hopper." Sparklez said.

"So, I'm looking at this situation and I'm trying to figure something out. Is this just about TorqueDawg? Or is there a bigger picture?" Lukas inquired.

"Yeah. Why have our portraits?" Petra agreed.

"I dunno guys. Knowing TorqueDawg, I think this might just be about him." Lizzie responded.

"I gotta say, he definitely had an attitude." Fred agreed.

"What, like you think he deserved it?" Jesse asked.

"Well, that sounds pretty harsh, but, uh… I dunno? Maybe?" Lizzie said. "Well, someone brought us all here for a reason, including TorqueDawg."

"What if we're all in danger?" Dan asked in realization.

"Ohmygosh, Dan's right." Stacy exclaimed.

"Whoever's doing this… they could be hunting us!" Stampy added.

"Well. If we stick together, hopefully whoever is hunting us won't be able to get the drop on us, which means we'll be fine!" Fred said.

"Ha. Inspiring." Dan deadpanned.

"There you go, guys! Teamwork makes the dream work!" Sparklez agreed.

"Wow." Ivor responded.

"Ooh, all of this 'danger' talk has my stomach all queasy." Stampy admitted.

Stacy pulled him away.

"Stampy, come over here. I need to talk to you about something."

"Lizzie. Psst. Lizzie." Dan whispered, gesturing for Lizzie to join him.

"The more I think about it, the more I think that there's something these people really don't want us to know." Ivor observed.

"One of them's gotta know the truth about what's going on here." Petra said.

"It'd be nice to figure out what on earth is going on here, especially if we're going to be stuck with these people until dawn." Luka agreed.

"I saw we talk to everyone and gain their trust." Jesse suggested.

"Yeah. Good luck with that." Petra responded, less enthusiastic about the situation than Jesse.

"Let's get investigating then." Lukas said.

"I'll talk to Dan and Lizzie. Jesse, you talk to the others." Fred said.

Jesse nodded.

Fred approached Dan and Lizzie.

"Hey there, you two." Fred greeted.

"Oh, uh, hello." Dan greeted back, stuttering a little.

"Hi there."

"I've got some few questions about TorqueDawg that I'd like for you to answer." Fred explained.

"Yeah? Go ahead." Dan said.

"Lizzie, seems you didn't like TorqueDawg that much, what's the deal?" Fred asked.

"Oh, come on. You met him, right? Nobody liked that guy, I'm just the only one who will actually admit it." Lizzie responded.

"He, um. Yeah. He definitely wasn't the nicest person." Dan agreed.

"Seems people were really interested in seeing what TorqueDawg had on him? Any idea on why this might be?" Fred asked next.

"An adventurer like him? He could have had all sorts of cool stuff." Lizzie said.

"Noted." Fred responded. "TorqueDawg was clearly the intended target in this trap, why him?"

"Well, he was bragging about having some kind of 'rare item.'" Dan explained.

"Wouldn't show it to anyone, of course. Typical TorqueDawg." Lizzie added.

"So, what is this 'rare item' that TorqueDawg supposedly had?" Fred inquired.

"We don't know exactly." Lizzie said.

"Yeah, sorry." Dan apologized.

"Okay, that's the questions done. I thank you for your time." Fred said, getting up. He walked to Petra.

"What'd you find out?" Petra asked.

"Seems TorqueDawg was bragging about having some sort of valuable rare item." Fred responded.

"I didn't see anything like that in his inventory though." Petra said.

"Yeah, something shadier is definitely going on here." Fred agreed.

* * *

(JESSE'S POV)

Meanwhile, Jesse was questioning Cassie and Sparklez.

"Cassie, you seemed pretty upset about people wanting to poke around in TorqueDawg's inventory." Jesse stated.

"Oh? Was I?" Cassie asked.

"Yeah. Yeah, you were. Why was that?"

"Well, it was just so insensitive, right? It had just happened, and she was all curious about what was in his pockets." Cassie said. "Just, made me mad, I guess."

"Got any guesses why someone would kill TorqueDawg?" Jesse asked.

"Oh, gosh. Gosh. He was a little… prickly around the edges, you know? You'd have to ask other people about that, I- I didn't really know him." Cassie responded.

"I don't want to say anything mean about a guy that's not here to defend himself, but, well. You met him, right? 'Prickly' is kind of an understatement." Sparklez added.

"There was drama between Lizzie and TorqueDawg, right? Got any insight?" Jesse questioned.

"Sorry, I'm not getting wrapped up in that. Especially now that TorqueDawg is… y'know." Sparklez responded.

"But it's weird, right? Definitely seems like there's some beef." Cassie observed. "Not that I, um, want to get into rumors or anything like that."

"Sparklez, Cassie, Winslow. Thanks for the time." Jesse said, getting up.

"No problem!" Cassie responded.

Jesse approached Petra and Fred.

"Get anything out of them?" Petra asked.

"Found out this group has a whole lot of secrets they're keeping from each other." Jesse relayed.

"That's definitely something." Petra agreed.

Jesse approached Stampy and Stacy.

"Hey guys. Stampy and Stacy, right?" Jesse greeted.

"Oh! Um, uh, Hello!" Stampy greeted back.

"Hey, Jesse. What's up?"

"I know things are a little nuts right now, but I've got some questions." Jesse said.

"Oh? Really? What?" Stampy asked.

"Anyone you can think of that would want something bad to happen to TorqueDawg?"

"Um, well. I never had that big of a problem with him, personally." Stampy said. "But I know other people did? Quite a few actually. I don't know if you noticed, but he was a bit of a griefer."

"Yeah, and a thief." Stacy added.

"Thief, huh? Interesting." Jesse said. "Stacy, you seemed pretty curious about what was in TorqueDawg's inventory. What's up with that?"

"Well, TorqueDawg was a pretty notorious thief. I was just curious about what he had, that's it." Stacy answered.

"Hmm-hmm. Seems like Lizzie and TorqueDawg really didn't like each other. Know anything else about that?"

"Oh that! Real shame. Real shame." Stampy said.

"He broke into her house and stole a bunch of stuff from her." Stacy stated. "She was super upset about it."

"You don't say. Thanks, you two. This has been… enlightening." Jesse finished.

"No problem." Stampy responded.

"Yeah, no problem." Stacy agreed.

Jesse approached the rest of the group again.

"Find anything out from Stacy or Stampy?" Fred asked.

"Apparently, TorqueDawg was a well-known thief." Jesse responded.

"A thief, huh? That might have something to do with it, don't you think?" Lukas said.

"Agreed. So, TorqueDawg was a thief, and he supposedly had something rare, but it feels like there's still a piece missing. No one will tell me what this 'rare item' is." Jesse said.

Sparklez approached them.

"I, uh… I think I can shed some light on that, actually." He admitted.

"Well, what is it then?" Fred asked.

"There's a temple. Way out in the middle of nowhere. No one knows who built it, but it's been there forever." Sparklez explained. "People have been trying to track down the temple's location for ages because they want this treasure that's supposedly deep in its basement."

Was Sparklez going where Jesse thought he was going?

"Now, it looks just like an ordinary flint and steel, but it's actually super rare. It's got this enchantment on it and-"

"-it can open portals to other worlds?" Jesse finished.

"Exactly! Wait, what?! You know about the enchanted flint and steel?" Sparklez asked, suspiciously.

"I actually have one of my own." Jesse admitted.

"Really?"

"Yeah, I do. Just used it a little while ago to-" Jesse said, moving to pull it out.

"Oh jeez, put that away!" Sparklez panicked. "You can't just pull that out here!"

Jesse put the flint and steel away.

"Okay, you know. I had a theory about why you were here, and I think this might just prove it."

Sparklez called everyone over.

"Everyone, everyone!" He called.

"We've all been freaking out, wondering why we were all brought here. Why TorqueDawg died… and Jesse has uncovered a very important clue." Sparklez announced.

"What? Really?" Stampy asked.

"Whoever killed TorqueDawg, whoever invited us. They're after the enchanted flint and steel."

Before Sparklez could say any more, his chair flipped over, and a piston pushed him into a hole, which immediately filled with sand.

The lights went out.

* * *

Yep. That's right. I'm going to end this chapter here.

Author's Notes: For Fred's portrait, just imagine his portrait in Fred's keep. (The same one used for the story cover pic) But in his human form.

Not much else to say.

Like it? Review. Don't like it, look up another story.

More to follow.


	6. A Portal to Mystery - The White Pumpkin

Chapter 6 – The White Pumpkin

* * *

Disclaimer: If you have not read **Fred: Admin in Exile** yet. I suggest you read that story first before reading this one.

(Minecraft: Story Mode and its characters belong to Telltale Games, not me.)

* * *

(FRED'S POV)

Great. It was happening again.

"PANICPANICPANICPANICPANIC-" Stampy panicked.

"What just happened?!" Lizzie asked.

"Stampy! Pull yourself together." Dan said.

"PANICPANICPANICPANICPANIC-" Stampy continued to panic.

"I can't see!"

"Sparklez!"

The lights turned back on, only instead of the inviting warm color they were before, they were now a cold blue color, illuminated by white jack-o-lanterns.

"**Greetings, 'Adventurers.' I… AM THE WHITE PUMPKIN!**" An unnerving voice announced.

Fred saw that the portrait at the front of the room had changed to show the figure that he saw outside. It was holding up a diamond axe.

Items appeared above the sand, indicating that Sparklez was now dead. They sank down before the floor closed back up.

"**One of you has the treasure I desire, and I will not rest until it is mine! Even if I have to resort…**_"_

The lights went out again.

"**TO MURDER!**"

The lights came back on, only the portrait had disappeared, to reveal the White Pumpkin himself standing there.

"More panicking! More panicking!" Stampy continued.

"'White Pumpkin?!'"

"I'm too cute to die." Cassie exclaimed.

Before Fred could vanish his mask, the lights went back off and on again. The portrait of the White Pumpkin was back.

"They killed Sparklez! They killed Sparklez!" Dan panicked.

Stampy blindly ran around the room, completely terrified.

"Whoa! Hang on! Hang on!" Lukas called.

"This is awful! Terrible!" Stacy exclaimed.

"Who was that guy?!" Cassie asked.

"And there's no such thing as 'White Pumpkins!'" Dan added.

"Tell that to the White Pumpkins hanging all over the place!" Stampy snapped, then continued to run.

"I don't like it! I really don't like it!" Cassie panicked.

"I actually saw him in the window when we first got here!" Jesse stated.

"You mean he's been in here the whole time?!" Cassie said, horrified. "I am so getting out of here!"

Getting up, Cassie ran to the door and left the dining room.

"So much for a nice dinner party." Petra commented.

A scream got their attention.

"I don't like the sound of that." Ivor said.

Bursting into the lounge room, they saw that Cassie had opened the front doors, to show the horde of Zombies outside, slowly approaching Cassie.

"CASSIE!? WHAT ARE YOU DOING?! SHUT THE DAMN DOOR!" Fred shouted. He ran forward, pushed past Cassie and flipped the lever, shutting the door. Cassie picked up Winslow, patting him.

"C'mere Winslow. Don't be scared." She said. "So we're stuck in here. And if we're stuck in here, we're all doomed!"

Fred saw Lizzie, Stacy, Dan, Stampy, Jesse, Petra, Lukas and Ivor rejoin them out in the lounge room.

"I thought I heard Sparklez say something about a flint & steel." Stacy said.

"Oh, please don't bring that up again." Stampy begged.

"Well, obviously TorqueDawg didn't steal it." Lizzie pointed out.

"Okay, but who then?" Dan asked.

"Uh, guys?" Lukas called.

Looking up at the portraits, Fred saw that Sparklez's portrait was now X'd out, just like TorqueDawg's. Ivor's picture was next to Sparklez's.

"Well. I guess I'm next then." Ivor commented.

"Nope. Not happening." Petra insisted.

"Don't worry Ivor, I'll protect you." Jesse assured.

"I appreciate that, Jesse." Ivor said. "I just hope that this 'White Pumpkin' isn't beyond both of our abilities."

"Well, I'm sure there's a perfectly logical explanation for how the White Pumpkin is doing all this." Lukas pointed out. "I mean, the whole place has gotta be rigged with traps, right? TorqueDawg, trap. Sparklez, trap."

"Yeah, we need to find out what makes these traps tick." Jesse agreed.

They approached the doors to the dining room.

"All right, I'm going to investigate that dining room." Jesse informed.

"Okay, I'm going to stay out here and watch these guys. Make sure they don't try anything stupid." Fred said.

"An excellent idea. Don't want them messing up the crime scene." Ivor agreed.

"I'm sticking with you, Jesse. Doesn't seem safe to wander off alone." Lukas said.

"Okay people, clear out! This is a crime scene!" Ivor ordered.

* * *

(JESSE'S POV)

Lukas and Jesse entered the dining room.

"Okay, how are you doing this, White Pumpkin?" Jesse questioned.

He stopped by the fireplace for a moment.

"Impressive." Jesse commented.

"Anything?" Lukas asked.

"Nah, looks like a regular old fireplace."

Jesse examined the dining table that they were sitting at earlier.

"Okay, so this was the dining table where we were all gathered together right before…"

Jesse faltered as he noticed a button underneath the table. Going out on a limb, he decided to press it.

"Okay, let's give this a shot."

Jesse pressed it.

The seat that Sparklez was sitting at tipped over again, and a pit opened up, sand blocks covering it.

"Just like before." Lukas commented.

The lights went out again, before coming back on.

"**Greetings, 'Adventurers.' I… AM THE WHITE PUMPKIN!**" The White Pumpkin's voice announced again.

"Yep. Just like before." Lukas added.

The floor closed back up.

"**One of you has the treasure I desire, and I will not rest until it is mine! Even if I have to resort…**"

Lukas pulled out his bow and arrow and shot the portrait as the lights went out.

"**TO MURDER!**"

Taking out the portrait, they saw the White Pumpkin again. Upon closer inspection, Jesse saw that the eyes and gloves were missing. There was a jukebox at the back of the alcove it was in.

"It's just a costume, on an armor stand with a jukebox for the voice. No sign of how it was triggered." Jesse said.

"Wow. The White Pumpkin must have some amazing redstone skills to rig up something like this." Lukas remarked. "But why? Must've taken a lot of work to rig up."

"I think it was to scare us. A warning." Jesse voiced his opinion.

"Well, Mission accomplished."

* * *

(FRED'S POV)

Meanwhile, Fred was out in the lounge, watching everyone like a hawk, when the White Pumpkin's voice got his attention. It was coming from the dining room.

He immediately burst through the door, rushing to Lukas and Jesse's aid inside the dining room.

"What's going on in here?" Fred asked as he ran inside. The others followed him in.

"He's back. The White Pumpkin's back." Stampy panicked.

"Don't worry everyone, it's just a dummy. A White Pumpkin costume on an armor stand." Jesse explained.

"What? What? Why?" Dan asked.

"The trap that killed Sparklez, the whole show with the White Pumpkin. It was all triggered by a button on the table." Jesse said.

"But what does that mean?" Lizzie inquired, confused.

"I am so creeped out right now." Stacy admitted.

"It means that the White Pumpkin sat at this very table and pushed the button." Jesse stated, as if it were obvious.

"Wait! So you're saying that the White Pumpkin, is one of us?" Stampy asked.

"That's right, Mr. Stampy. One of us… is a murderer." Jesse confirmed. On cue, a huge strike of thunder clashed outside.

"And he sat right here." Ivor said, kneeling next to a button. But that wasn't the same button that Jesse pressed.

"Wait, but that's not where Jesse found the button before." Lukas said.

"There's more than one?"

"I'll see if I can find all of them."

"Nice work, Jesse." Petra appraised.

"Yes. Now that we have made this revelation, the task of figuring out who this guy is just got ten times easier." Fred agreed.

"So what now? Feels like we've made some good progress so far though, right?" Petra asked.

"We need to figure out the most likely suspects and interrogate them." Jesse said. "Judging by the tipped arrows and these traps, the White Pumpkin must have some serious chops in brewing AND redstone."

"Okay, that's all of them." Lukas relayed.

"If you could all please take the same seat you were at before." Jesse instructed. "Four of your seats are marked, these are the seats that had a button to activate the trap. That means that the White Pumpkin can only be Dan, Stampy, Lizzie or Lukas."

"Wait, you're accusing us?!" Lizzie asked, scandalized.

"I echo their sentiments exactly! I didn't even see a button!" Stampy agreed.

"Hey, would you people all just calm down?" Jesse suggested.

"'Calm?' Pfft! Listen to this, talking about 'calm!'" Stampy retorted.

"I'm taking charge now, and I'm going to get to the bottom of this." Jesse said. "I want everyone separated. I'm going to talk to each suspect one by one, so I can find out who's telling the truth, and who's lying."

Jesse paced back and forth.

"I've got a whole lot of questions, and I want nice little matching answers for each and every one of them, understand me?"

"Loud and clear." Stacy responded.

"Yes, crystal clear." Stampy added.

"Who are we interrogating first?" Fred asked.

"DAN!" Jesse pointed. Fred grabbed Dan and escorted him into the library, Jesse following.

* * *

(JESSE'S POV)

Fred entered the library, escorting Dan inside. Dan had white hair now.

"I'm telling you, you've got the wrong guy. Honest." Dan pleaded. "I would never hurt anyone, you've got to believe me."

Dan paused, before continuing.

"If anyone's been wronged here, it's me. That enchanted flint and steel everyone's talking about? I found that! That's mine!" Dan confessed. "At least it was before someone stole it."

"Wow, this flint and steel means a lot to you, doesn't it?" Jesse observed.

"You don't get it. Lizzie and I have been chasing each other to get that thing for years. And now people are dying because of it!? I just want you to know the truth." Dan said.

Jesse raised an eyebrow.

"I'm not the White Pumpkin, you've gotta believe me. What can I tell you to convince you?" Dan asked.

Jesse pulled out the arrow.

"Know anything about this?"

"Oh, wow. Uh, no. I've never seen anything like that before." Dan answered.

"No? Tipped arrows not ringing a bell? Made using potions?"

"Nuh-uh, but you wanna know about stuff with potions? I'd ask Lizzie, She's way better with that stuff than I am. I always go to her with potion questions."

"Noted." Jesse said. "Out with it, who stole the flint and steel?"

"Oh, well, Lizzie obviously. She was jealous, never got over the fact that 'I' found it first." Dan bragged.

"So, how'd you rate your redstone knowledge?" Jesse questioned.

"Me? Phoof. Not much. Not really my scene. You wanna know more about that stuff? You should ask Stampy, he was the Tri-Block Champion."

"'Tri-Block Champion?'" Jesse repeated.

"Yeah, for three years running!"

"Hmm. Good to know." Jesse responded. "You can go now, Dan."

"Thanks Jesse, thank you."

And Dan left the library.

"Who do you want to question next?" Fred asked.

"Can you bring in Lizzie?" Jesse instructed.

Fred nodded before stepping out. He returned a moment later with Lizzie.

"Jesse, listen. There's been a lot of talk thrown around today." Lizzie started. "I don't know what people have told you, I don't know what you believe, but I'll just admit it. I want that enchanted flint and steel as much as anyone."

"Probably more than any of them. I've been searching for it for years." Lizzie continued. "Do you know how much it stung to have Dan. 'Dan', swoop in and take it from under my nose?"

"Wow, would you kill someone for it?" Jesse asked.

"Nah, I wouldn't do that." Lizzie said. "Starting to get real irritated with this White Pumpkin fella though. Listen, I just want to get out of here and get on with my day. What do you have to hear to be convinced that the White Pumpkin isn't me?"

"I'm just gonna be straight, who do you think stole the flint and steel?" Jesse questioned.

"Well, it wasn't me if you're curious." Lizzie pointed out. "If I had an enchanted flint and steel, I'd be exploring some other world with it."

"I wouldn't put it past Stampy though, he'd love the chance to explore other worlds." Lizzie stated.

"You like using redstone? Ever make traps with the stuff?" Jesse inquired.

"I'm fine, I guess. I can make lights and doors and stuff. You wanna do advanced stuff, you gotta talk to Stampy. He was the Tri-Block Champion."

"So I've heard." Jesse said. He pulled out the tipped arrow.

"Know what this is?" He asked.

"Tipped arrow. Kinda shoddy work though." Lizzie commented. "Definitely not one of mine if that's what you're wondering. Some noob made that thing. Stampy asked me once about how to make those, could be one of his."

"Plus, I taught Cassie and Stacy how to make those a while back." Lizzie added.

"Thanks for your time, Lizzie. That's all for now." Jesse said, gesturing toward the door. Lizzie left the room.

"Want me to get Stampy?" Fred asked.

"Yeah, send him in."

Fred returned with Stampy, who looked absolutely terrified.

"Jesse, I'm telling you. This is just crazy, absolutely crazy. Total misunderstanding." Stampy begged.

Jesse gestured toward the seat, silently telling him to sit down.

"I don't even want that flint and steel thingy. Not, um, not as much as the others at any rate." Stampy said. "Did I hear someone say it has something to do with portals? I don't have any interest in portals, no sir. Not for ol' Mister Stampy Cat, thank you."

"I gotta say Stampy, you seem nervous. Everything okay? You comfortable?" Jesse observed.

"Umm. What? No, I'm not nervous. Nope, totally comfortable. I could fall asleep right here, right now. I'm that comfortable. Honest!" Stampy stammered, looking just as nervous as he was when he first entered.

"I highly doubt that." Fred responded.

"Please, just tell me what you want to know." Stampy said.

"Know anything about this?" Jesse asked, pulling out the tipped arrow.

"Oh wow, what is that? Some sort of, magic arrow?" Stampy asked. "No. I've never seen anything like it before, honest. You know who would love to see something like that though? Lizzie. She's wild about potions and brewing and all that. She's way better with that stuff than I am."

"Good with potions, you say?"

"Very good. Could probably even teach a class. Ha ha." Stampy responded.

"What do you know about redstone? What's your skill level with the stuff?" Jesse questioned.

"Well, you know. About average? Average level? Moderate? I don't know how these things are graded these days." Stampy said.

"That's funny. Dan and Lizzie said that you were meant to be the 'Tri-Block Champion.'" Fred pointed out. "Don't lie to us, Stampy. The only thing it's gonna do is incriminate you even more."

"Okay, okay, okay, okay. Fine. You caught me. I do know redstone. I'm technically even an 'expert'." Stampy admitted. "But I would never kill anyone, I swear. You have to believe me! Honest."

"Okay, enough dancing around. Who do you think took the flint and steel?"

"I don't think it was ever actually stolen." Stampy said.

"Oh?"

"Yeah, so. Dan got to it ahead of Lizzie, right? And she was pretty angry about it. I think he made up that story about it being stolen so she'd think he didn't have it anymore. Classic Dan move."

"You're excused, Stampy." Jesse said. "Thank you for your time."

And with that, Stampy made a huge rush for the door.

"Oh, thank goodness. This room's making me very nervous." He commented.

"I thought you just said you weren't nervous? What happened to that? Huh?" Fred questioned.

Stampy ignored him and left the room. But someone else was entering. It was Cassie, hauling Lukas inside the room.

"Oh come on, this is nuts." Lukas protested.

"You had a button too!" Cassie explained. "Fair's fair. It's your buddy's turn next."

Cassie left the room. Jesse rolled his eyes.

"Hey Jesse." Lukas greeted.

"Ah, my final suspect. Here to point more fingers and blame more people, I'm sure." Jesse sarcastically said.

"I didn't push the button, you know." Lukas pointed out.

"I figured. Thanks though."

"How's it been going in here? It's been non-stop whispering and rumors out there." Lukas asked.

"It's been rough. These people have so much drama going on, it's hard to tell what's about the flint and steel, what's about the White Pumpkin." Jesse responded.

"Well, I know you can do it." Lukas assured.

"Ha, thanks Lukas."

Jesse tapped him on the back.

"Come on, suspect. It's time to return to the others."

Walking back out into the lounge room, everyone approached Jesse immediately.

"So? Have you decided?" Stacy asked.

"Yes, who do you think the White Pumpkin really is?" Stampy questioned.

"Now hang on, hang on everyone. First of all, I want to thank everyone for answering my questions." Jesse said. "There's still not 100% proof of anyone, but…"

"But?" Dan asked.

"Yes. What's your verdict, Jesse?" Fred questioned.

"Jesse was definitely questioning Stampy the longest." Lizzie pointed out.

"What! No!"

"Dan was in there way longer." Stacy argued.

"Hey! Not cool!"

"Guys, guys! Come on." Cassie broke it up.

Jesse pondered over the information that he had gathered from Dan, Lizzie and Stampy. And for some reason, he can't seem to decide.

"I actually don't think there's evidence to accuse anyone yet." Jesse responded.

"What?!"

"Yeah, that seems surprising." Petra agreed.

"I'm sorry, but I don't want to accuse anyone unless I'm 100% sure. And I'm not." Jesse stated.

"Wow. Way to take a bold stance, Jesse." Cassie remarked.

"Well, I for one am not comfortable being surrounded by possible killers. So, if you'll excuse me. I'm going to barricade myself in the library for my own safety." Dan said, walking into the library.

"Fine, suit yourself." Lizzie responded.

"Yeah, I'm more in the 'safety in numbers' camp myself." Stampy agreed.

"Well, that was certainly some excitement." Ivor reflected.

"Yeah. No kidding." Lukas agreed.

"If the White Pumpkin is roaming around though, they might be trying to set up more traps. We need to figure out how these things work." Petra reminded. "Like, we know that the Sparklez trap was triggered by those buttons under the table, but what about the trap that turned TorqueDawg into a pin-cushion?"

"It must have been triggered from nearby. Just like the table buttons." Jesse said.

"Sounds like we need to investigate near the trap then." Ivor deduced.

"You guys go on ahead. I'm going to stay here and keep an eye on these other people." Lukas offered. "I don't want them trying anything when we're not looking."

"I'm staying behind too." Fred added. "Like Lukas said, I don't trust these guys."

"Thanks, you two." Jesse responded.

And with that, Petra, Jesse and Ivor entered the kitchen.

* * *

Like it? Review. Don't like it, look up something else.

More to follow.


	7. A Portal to Mystery - Revelations

Chapter 7 – Revelations

* * *

Disclaimer: If you have not read **Fred: Admin in Exile** yet. I suggest you read that story first before reading this one.

(Minecraft: Story Mode and its characters belong to Telltale Games, not me.)

* * *

(JESSE'S POV)

Jesse, Ivor and Petra reentered the kitchen.

"Back in the kitchen. So, what are we looking for exactly?" Petra asked. "Buttons like back in the dining room? Conspicuous white pumpkins lying around?"

"We just need more evidence." Jesse said. "Anything that can draw a link to one of these people."

"Got it. I'm on the lookout."

Jesse took a look inside various things, none of which seemed to have anything suspicious inside them, until he happened upon a creeper painting. It's eyes seemed to have… holes inside them?

"Does this painting have… eyeholes?" Jesse observed.

Petra turned around and saw what Jesse was looking at.

"Oh yeah. How'd I not notice that before?"

"Seems worth taking a closer inspection." Ivor suggested.

Jesse raised his fist and punched it, to reveal that behind it was a secret passageway.

"Oh!" Ivor said in understanding.

Jesse climbed inside. There was a lever on the inside of the passageway.

"It's some sort of secret passageway! Very clever." Ivor commented. "What do you suppose that lever does?"

Jesse assumed it triggered the arrow trap.

"Okay everyone, make sure you're nowhere near that arrow trap." Jesse warned. Ivor and Petra took a step back, and then Jesse threw the switch.

At once, the lights went out and arrow firing noises were heard, before the lights came back on. This time, the arrows were impaled into the ground.

"More of those potion covered arrows." Petra observed. "Nasty."

Jesse flipped the switch again and they were consumed by the hoppers in the floor.

"Well, seems like we found out how the White Pumpkin killed TorqueDawg." Ivor reflected.

"Yeah, and how he's getting around the house." Jesse added.

There was a ladder deeper inside the secret passageway.

"I assume we're investigating the creepy passageway?" Petra assumed.

"I think we've come too far to turn around now." Jesse pointed out.

"Well, after you then." Ivor said, gesturing for Petra to go first.

They continued down the passageway, turning a few corners and walking down narrow hallways.

"I hope Dan's okay locked up in the library." Petra said. "We could have put them in even bigger danger. What if there are more traps in there?"

"Hey, do you trust me or not? I don't need people second-guessing me on this." Jesse snapped.

"Jeez, okay, okay. Sorry."

"Yes, keep that temper up and people will start to think you're the White Pumpkin." Ivor said, agreeing with Petra.

They found another portrait with eyeholes. A lever was next to it.

"What do you think that is?" Jesse asked.

"No idea. But look, a lever." Ivor pointed out. He stroked his beard as he approached it. "The amount of redstone wiring that must be hidden in this place. Amazing."

"IVOR! NO!" Jesse whisper-shouted.

"What do you think I am? Dense? I was just looking at it!" Ivor growled in response.

"Oh, good."

"Thanks for the vote of confidence though."

Jesse leaned into the eye-holes, poking his green eyes into it.

"See anything that this lever might be connected to?" Ivor asked. "What do you see?"

It was the library where Jesse and Fred had interrogated Dan, Lizzie and Stampy. He saw Dan sitting alone in there. His hair was cyan again.

"It's the library." Jesse answered. "I see Dan locked up in there."

While Jesse was looking around, Lizzie entered, startling Dan.

"Lizzie? What are you doing in here?" Dan asked.

"I snuck in past blondie and that other guy. Lukas and Fred, I'm think their names were. Anyway, we have to talk." Lizzie said.

"About what?"

"I know you pushed the button." Lizzie accused.

"No. That's not true!" Dan denied.

Lizzie rolled her eyes. "You don't have to lie to me, Dan. I know it was an accident. I know you're not the White Pumpkin."

"Ah, thank goodness, that's such a relief-"

But Jesse wasn't paying attention to their conversation anymore, for he saw moving glowing yellow eyes in another poster inside the room.

"It's such a relief to be able to talk about this. It's been absolutely tearing me up inside!" Jesse heard Dan continue.

"I'm sure, I just. Haven't you learned anything about not pushing buttons?" Lizzie asked.

As Jesse focused on the moving yellow eyes, they seemed to notice Jesse as well. Jesse stepped away from the back of the portrait.

"The White Pumpkin, he's in there." Jesse announced.

Petra unsheathed her sword.

"Then let's go kick his butt!"

Ivor nodded, holding out his hands.

With a nod, Jesse punched the portrait and stormed inside, taking Lizzie and Dan by surprise.

"What on earth?"

As Jesse approached the poster where the White Pumpkin was, he heard him growl and the sound of a lever being flipped.

At once, the exit door barricaded itself and the fireplace opened up, to reveal spiders which were already starting to crawl inside.

"What's going on in there? Jesse?" Fred's voice was heard from the other side of the barricaded door.

"Spiders! They're everywhere." Jesse announced.

At once, Fred teleported into the room out of purple particles. Dan and Lizzie didn't notice, for they were more focused on the spiders.

"You handle the spiders!" Jesse instructed. Without waiting for a response he raced to the portrait and smashed it, revealing the White Pumpkin in his suited glory.

"Why you little—"

Spiders jumped on top of Lizzie and she began to flash red, but Fred managed to get them off of her before they could kill her.

"Th-Thanks!" Lizzie panted.

Meanwhile, the White Pumpkin had climbed into the room.

"Enjoying the party?!" He taunted.

Fred teleported between Jesse and the White Pumpkin. He turned towards the White Pumpkin and gave him a fierce glare with his admin eyes.

"Would've been a lot more enjoyable without you here." Fred retorted.

The White Pumpkin backed towards the open fireplace. Jesse saw a flicker of fear in the murderer's eyes for a moment, but then they quickly snapped out of it.

"That's my cue."

And the White Pumpkin took off into another secret passageway inside the fireplace.

Fred followed him inside, but Jesse was cut off by the fireplace snapping shut again.

* * *

(FRED'S POV)

Fred heard the fireplace snap shut behind him. No way to go but forward now.

"Fred, are you okay?" Petra asked.

"We have to break through." Ivor said, with a struggle.

Fred heard the White Pumpkin's laugh echo around the secret passage he was in.

"You guys get to safety. I'll handle this." Fred instructed, before turning around and following the White Pumpkin's tracks.

He approached the staircase, where he saw the White Pumpkin standing at the top of.

"Try to keep up!" The White Pumpkin said, before jumping on a pressure plate. The ceiling on top of Fred opened up to reveal dispensers.

Even though the arrows couldn't hurt him anyway, as he was an Admin. Fred teleported a few blocks forward, dodging the arrows. He immediately began to fly and chase the White Pumpkin, who to his astonishment was already at the far end of the long hallway.

The White Pumpkin's eyes widened in fear as he saw Fred flying. Fred charged towards him but couldn't reach him in time before the White Pumpkin pulled out an ender pearl and threw it, disappearing in purple particles.

Teleporting? Well, two can play at that game. With a clap, Fred teleported close to him, watching him as he broke a portrait and ran out into the main lounge.

Fred followed the White Pumpkin into the lounge, where he saw Jesse and Lukas walk out of the library. He saw the White Pumpkin walking up the stairs.

"Okay, noob time is over!" Fred said, quoting Magnus the Rogue. "Time to show this idiot who he's dealing with."

Lukas ran towards the White Pumpkin, who had disappeared out of the room.

"I'll cut him off!"

With a cry, Lukas followed him out of the room.

Fred flew in behind Lukas, to find a pitch-black room. The lights turned on, to find that the White Pumpkin was standing in the middle of the room, with Lukas nowhere to be seen.

With a clap of Fred's hands, the mask flew off, to reveal Lukas' face underneath it. Wait, what?

"Lukas?!" Fred asked in disbelief.

"Hey." Lukas greeted. He turned around and grabbed the White Pumpkin mask.

"Give me a moment. I'm trying to figure this one out myself."

"YOU LET THAT IDIOT GET AWAY!? I THOUGHT YOU WERE RIGHT ON TOP OF HIM!" Fred demanded.

"I was! I was! And I almost had him until, y'know, he took me by surprise and stuffed this pumpkin on my head." Lukas explained.

Petra, Jesse and Ivor entered the room, followed by the others.

"What's going on in here?!" Petra asked.

"NO!" Ivor gasped.

"You caught the White Pumpkin! Grab him! Quick!" Stampy instructed.

"On it!" Stacy responded. She and Cassie stepped forward.

"Get out of our way, Fred." Cassie demanded.

Fred resisted the urge to display his Admin eyes.

"Not until you two back off!" Fred threatened.

"Nope. It's all out in the open now, you can't defend your friend anymore." Stacy spat.

"No, no, no. I am not going to stand for this. One of you is still the murderer, and you're just trying to use Lukas as a scapegoat so that you can get away undetected." Fred said.

"Yeah, bold words." Cassie retorted.

"Mmm-hmm." Stacy agreed.

Stampy stood forward.

"It's the facts, Fred. These horrible things only started happening when your group arrived." Stampy pointed out.

"Well, I saw we throw him outside and let nature take it's course." Cassie suggested, walking toward the window.

"What? 'Out-Outside? Outside?'" Stacy repeated.

"Where all the googlies are?" Stampy questioned.

"Well, I'm afraid you aren't going to be doing that, Cassie. Not while I'm still here." Fred said, with a smirk.

"Yeah, uh, I don't know. I still have my suspicions about Lukas, but Fred here did save us." Dan said. "I don't feel right about chucking your friend to the zombies."

"Exactly." Lizzie agreed.

"Hmph. Brave stance." Ivor commented.

"Oh, thank goodness some people here know how to demonstrate the tiniest amount of common sense." Fred said, relieved. He pointed to Cassie and Stacy. "Not like these two."

"Fine!" Cassie huffed.

"Thank you." Lukas responded.

"Don't go celebrating yet." Cassie continued. "We've still got to do something with you so you're not roaming around freely."

"What, like lock me up in a closet or something?" Lukas asked.

"Don't give them ideas." Fred said, elbowing him.

"There was a closet in the main hall! With a lovely metal door! Seems like a perfect place to lock someone up." Stampy suggested.

"Wait. I was…mostly joking." Lukas nervously chuckled.

"I guess that's fair." Cassie conceded. "But I'm keeping guard because I still don't trust him."

"And I don't trust you either. Guess we're both disappointed!" Fred retorted, glaring at Cassie. She glared straight back.

"It's fine, Fred. I'll watch over Lukas." Ivor offered.

"Awesome." Lukas responded, looking visibly uncomfortable.

"Come on, Cassie." Ivor said, gesturing for her to follow. "But don't go getting any funny ideas, blond guy. This isn't because I like you or anything."

"No, of course not." Lukas played along.

"Quiet! Prisoners aren't supposed to talk." Cassie snapped. Winslow ran after her.

"Okay, well what are we supposed to do now?" Petra asked. "We need to figure out how we're going to clear Lukas' name."

"Well, I did notice that some of these people were remarkably quick to accuse Lukas!" Fred pointed out. "Stacy and Cassie, for example. Right now, we need to find some way to get some dirt on whoever the White Pumpkin is."

"Sounds like a plan to me." Petra agreed.

Fred approached a portrait of the White Pumpkin holding a potion. Getting an idea, he punched it, revealing another secret passage.

Everyone gasped.

Entering the secret passageway, Fred saw a set of double iron doors.

"Don't mind me if I just…" Fred started.

With a clap of his hands, the doors disappeared.

"Sometimes you have to use brute force to solve problems." Fred explained to the shocked people behind him. Jesse and Petra just rolled their eyes. "What?"

"Ho-how did you-" Stampy stammered.

"Admin powers." Fred responded. "Long story. I'll tell you guys about it later. You guys should stay here, it can get dangerous."

"Nooo. I totally want to follow you into your friend's creepy secret passageways." Stacy sarcastically replied.

Jesse stepped up.

"Hey, we're gonna prove he's innocent! You'll see!"

"Sure! Welp. See you back here at quarter-to-never!" Stampy responded before storming off with the others. Petra was the only one still standing there.

"Jesse and I are going to investigate this passageway. You keep an eye on the others, make sure they don't try anything." Fred instructed.

"Got it." Petra nodded.

Jesse and Fred entered the passageway, to come across what seemed like a bottomless pit.

"Wow. That is deep. Guess it leads down to whatever the White Pumpkin calls home." Jesse commented. "I wonder how he gets down there."

"Perhaps it has something to do with those ender pearls that I saw him use earlier?" Fred suggested. "In any case, you may want to brace yourself."

Fred waved his arm, and they slowly floated down.

It took a while, but eventually they hit the bottom. The passageway in front of them seemed to be made out of dirt and stone. It was also really dark as well.

"Wow. It's dark down here, isn't it?" Fred commented. "What do you think, will we find the White Pumpkin down here?"

"I'll be honest, I hope we do." Jesse responded. "And this time, his ender pearls aren't going to save him."

"Not when I can just…" Fred waved his hand. "…his mask into nothingness."

Jesse stopped, hearing something.

"Hey, do you hear—"

"A million zombies? Yes. I do." Fred answered for him. "And the familiar smell that makes me want to gag."

"Ugh, ditto. Gross." Jesse agreed.

As they walked past a bunch of iron bars, a zombie jumped up, banging on it.

"Well. There are the zombies." Fred said.

As they walked past another cage full of zombies, Jesse noticed something.

"What in the world is that?" He asked.

Fred saw what he was staring at. A mob spawner.

"It's a zombie spawner." Fred pointed out. "You only find those in dungeons, and there is no crafting recipe for them, so I am really surprised that the White Pumpkin managed to get his hands on these. It also means that the sea of zombies outside was made by the White Pumpkin. This guy is cunning, I'll give him that."

Reaching an opening, they saw a machine with items flowing through it. It was an item elevator. Wow, this guy was no amateur, he could probably give Xara a run for her money with those redstone skills.

"An item elevator." Fred observed. "I assume that these were items of both TorqueDawg and CaptainSparklez."

The loot seemed to be going in the direction of a lit tunnel.

"I'm guessing that's where we need to go." Fred said.

"If we can get up there, I think we might be able to follow the loot to wherever it's going." Jesse added.

Fred clapped his hands and teleported them up, taking Jesse by surprise.

"Jeez, Fred. Could you not do that?" Jesse snapped, gagging.

"Sorry. Couldn't resist." Fred chuckled, while strangling a stray spider that tried to get the jump on them.

They continued on in silence, until they heard a sound that sounded a lot like meowing.

"Weird. That almost sounds like…" Jesse started.

"…cats?" Fred finished.

Turning the corner, they came right face-to-face with the White Pumpkin.

Fred vanished the mask instantly, to discover with a groan that it was just another armor stand. Ahead, they came across what seemed to be a White Pumpkin growing station.

"Hmm. Seems like this guy is a good farmer as well." Fred commented.

But before he could say anymore, footstep sounds were growing near. It was coming from behind them. The light from the other room casting a human shadow on the wall.

"The White Pumpkin must have heard us!" Jesse pointed out.

Ready to vanish the mask of whoever came around the corner, Fred prepared himself.

Only the figure wasn't wearing any mask or suit whatsoever.

It was Stampy, in the same cat hoodie he was wearing upstairs. And he looked extremely nervous.

* * *

Author's Notes: Don't mind me if I just… ahem. End it there.

My decision to save Lizzie might have been a bit, _ahem_… cliché. But I wanted Fred to be useful for something.

Not much else to say here.

Like it? Review. Don't like it, look up another story.

More to follow.


	8. A Portal to Mystery - The Confession

Chapter 8 – The Confession

* * *

Disclaimer: If you have not read **Fred: Admin in Exile** yet. I suggest you read that story first before reading this one.

(Minecraft: Story Mode and its characters belong to Telltale Games, not me.)

* * *

(FRED'S POV)

"Stampy Cat?!"

"Boy, you gave me a fright! What are you doing down here?!" Stampy asked.

"'What are we doing down here?'" Fred repeated.

"Yes! It looks terribly suspicious you know!" Stampy pointed out.

"What are YOU doing down here?" Fred questioned, pointing a finger at Stampy.

"Wh-What? N-Nothing. I-I was, I was just curious." Stampy responded, putting his arms up in the air. He pushed through Jesse and Fred. "Come on, you guys. I _can't_ be the White Pumpkin! I'm Stampy Cat! I'm no… murderer!"

A distant thunder sound was heard as Stampy finished speaking.

"I needed to find you because I have something important to tell you!" Stampy continued. "I have something to confess, something I haven't told anyone."

"And that is?" Fred inquired, raising an eyebrow.

Stampy reached into his pocket and pulled out a glowing flint and steel, very similar to the one that Jesse had. But this one was green instead of cyan.

"I stole it from Dan, and it was just supposed to be a joke, a harmless prank but then, well, you've seen what happened!" Stampy confessed.

"You know, Stampy. Pulling that out down here right next to the White Pumpkin's lair was an extremely risky thing to do." Fred reprimanded. "What if he was watching? If he saw that, you'd be next on his target list."

"I know! That's why I had to keep it a secret!" Stampy agreed. "I may be a thief, but I'm no killer! But that White Pumpkin is, and he's killing people for it and now we're down in his lair!"

Stampy walked to a bare armor stand with a White Pumpkin on it.

"I was thinking… maybe I should just give it to the White Pumpkin." Stampy suggested.

"No." Fred instantly disagreed.

"Well, I thought that if I did that, maybe it would all stop, right?"

"If he's going to resort to murder just because he can't get off his lazy butt and find one himself, he's not worthy of having it." Fred snapped.

"Well, we aren't going to worry about that right now." Jesse said. "Right now, we need to focus on figuring out who this 'White Pumpkin' really is and making sure that he cannot hurt more people."

"I… I suppose that's a better strategy." Stampy conceded.

The three approached the iron doors.

"Not as grand as what I've seen back in my world, but that's still a lair door." Fred commented.

Jesse flipped the lever on the wall, opening the doors.

Walking inside, they saw a decrepit, tall room. It unnerved Fred slightly, knowing that a serial killer lived down here.

"Spooky!" Fred commented.

"I would not put this in my top ten places I've ever been." Stampy agreed.

Fred approached a chest, which had a calico cat lying on top of it. Two more cats were gathered up on top of the shelves next to the chest.

"Is it just me, or do they seem very similar to cat owned by Cassie?" Fred questioned.

"Don't worry, we'll get out of here as soon as we find something that proves the White Pumpkin's identity." Jesse reassured.

Stampy made a noise in response.

As Jesse poked around for clues, Fred was doing some thinking in his head about who the most likely suspects could be right now. Dan and Lizzie were in the library when he was fighting the White Pumpkin, so it's definitely not them.

Stampy seemed way too scared to be the murderer. But then again, it wouldn't do to underestimate, lest he make the same mistake he did with Romeo.

Narrowing things down, Fred deduced that Stacy or Cassie were the most likely culprits. They both were extremely quick to accuse Lukas, as though they were trying to shift the blame away from them, and Fred didn't see either of them while chasing the White Pumpkin. Another factor are those calico cats on the shelf nearby. They appeared very similar to Winslow, who belonged to Cassie.

Fred heard a chest open.

"I'm guessing this chest should have… yep. We've got sticks." Jesse announced, pulling sticks out.

"Anything else?" Stampy asked.

Jesse pulled out a bunch of Ender Pearls!

"Oh wow, and Ender Pearls! Sweet! That must be how the White Pumpkin got down that elevator shaft." Jesse commented.

Fred saw a brewing stand. Jesse approached it.

"Looks like a typical brewing stand. Must be where the White Pumpkin made the tipped arrows that killed TorqueDawg." Jesse said. "Didn't Lizzie say that she taught Cassie and Stacy how to make those too?"

"Precisely. Which only strengthens my suspicions about one of those two being the culprit." Fred agreed.

Fred was pretty sure that the culprit was Cassie. Even though Stacy seemed suspicious as well, the calico cats seemed to point out that it was Cassie who was the murderer. Figures. First Romeo, now Cassie. Fred was beginning to wonder if people with firetruck red hair in general should not be trusted.

"Fred, did you see this?" Jesse asked, looking at a poster.

Approaching the poster, Fred saw that it was the hallway that they briefly visited after leaving Sky City.

"That's the portal hallway." Fred observed.

"Yeah, looks like the White Pumpkin's been there too."

Fred saw Jesse approach a body of water in the corner of the room. Jesse seemed to notice something, before turning around.

"I bet one of those would convince that cat to get off the chest." Jesse said. "But how am I going to catch one."

Fred knew straight away what Jesse planned to do; catch a fish to lure the cat away from the chest.

A fishing pole spawned out of white smoke in Jesse's hand.

"We really don't have time to waste here." Fred explained. "So use that to catch a fish, that way we can get to whatever is in that chest."

Jesse walked over to the pond and threw the hook of the fishing pole into the pond, before winding it back up with a fish hooked onto it.

"Ha!"

"Nice catch." Fred appraised.

"Thanks!" Jesse said. "I bet that cat'll love this."

Jesse walked to the chest where the cat was still sleeping on it.

"Okay, here kitty. Get the fishy." Jesse called, holding the fish out for the cat.

The cat perked it's head up in curiosity, before jumping off the chest and hesitantly approaching the fish, which Jesse had put on the ground.

"There you go, jeez." Jesse groaned.

Jeez was right, for the fish had just woken up and attracted the attention of a whole clowder of cats.

"Ah! Many cats! So many cats!" Jesse exclaimed as they jumped down and rushed past him.

"I'm going to be honest, I was never a huge fan of cats." Fred admitted. "No offense Stampy."

"None taken. I'm not really a cat." Stampy whispered in response.

"At least I can finally get in here now." Jesse sighed, opening the chest. "It's full of… portraits. Loads of them."

Jesse grabbed a portrait and put it on the wall.

To Fred's mild surprise, he saw himself in his human form on the poster, in the same pose as the ones upstairs and the old posters that used to hang back at his keep in his old world. However, this one had a huge red X printed in the middle of it.

"Well, this explains quite a bit. Seems the White Pumpkin had all of these ready to go." Fred remarked. But one thing was still bothering him, how did the White Pumpkin manage to paint them with painstaking detail on such little time.

Deciding to test a theory he had, he flashed into his Admin form, startling Stampy. Surprisingly enough, the poster now showed Fred in his blue Admin form.

"Oh, wow. So it seems they update themselves to reflect our current appearance." Fred commented.

Fred noticed Stampy standing there, his jaw completely ajar.

"Sorry, sorry. Didn't mean to scare you." Fred apologized. "This is just my Admin form. Remember how I said before that I had Admin powers?"

"Oh, yes." Stampy said.

Jesse finished searching through the chest.

"Besides Fred, we've got Dan, Lizzie, Stacy, Stampy, Petra, Lukas, Ivor, and… oh hey, there's me." Jesse said.

"Wait a second, I think you may have 'forgotten' someone there." Fred pointed out.

"Oh yeah, there was one person who didn't have a crossed-out portrait." Jesse agreed. "Someone who's a known cat person."

Fred's eyes widened in realization.

"Yes! You figured it out?" Stampy asked, anticipation clearly shown on his face.

"The White Pumpkin… is Cassie Rose!" Jesse declared. "She's the murderer."

A giant roll of thunder echoed around the room.

"Holy crap. You're absolutely right!" Fred responded.

"I don't believe it." Stampy added.

"And not only is Cassie the White Pumpkin, but that way too many cats, and she is way too similar to Romeo for my liking, namely her hair." Fred commented.

"Well, come on you guys." Jesse gestured. "It's time to prove Lukas' innocence and-"

"Show Cassie what happens when you get on an Admin's bad side." Fred finished.

* * *

(JESSE'S POV)

Jesse and Stampy re-entered the living room, where Lizzie, Dan and Stacy were currently residing. Fred had stayed behind, ready to give Cassie a piece of his mind.

"I'll go round everyone up!" Stampy said, before rushing out of the room.

"What's going on?" Stacy asked.

"Yeah, you were gone an awful long time! What's going on here?" Dan added. His hair was now purple.

"Did you even find anything?"

"We found the White Pumpkin's lair, right beneath us." Jesse said.

"What? Really?" Stacy gasped.

"Yeah, very interesting." Cassie said as she entered the room, Winslow following in her wake.

Jesse gave her a cold hard glare, gesturing towards the open door. Cassie paled considerably. Yep, she was busted.

Stampy returned with Lizzie, Lukas, Petra and Ivor.

"No sign of Cassie but—ah!"

"Are you going to tell them? Or should we force it out of you?" Jesse asked.

"I don't know what you're talking about." Cassie responded, clearly feigning ignorance.

Suddenly, everyone gasped.

Jesse looked back again and saw why. Fred was stepping out, cracking his knuckles. He was still in his Admin form, and if looks could kill, Cassie would have already poofed into white smoke.

"Can someone tell me what is going…" Cassie began.

Fred raised a fist and connected it with her face. Due to his Admin strength, Cassie found herself plummeting straight for the floor.

Everyone except for Stampy and Jesse gasped again in response.

"OW! WHAT THE HELL!" Cassie yelled in response.

"You're not going to be wriggling your way out of this one, murderer!" Fred said. His voice dangerously quiet, but full of venom.

A clap of thunder followed Fred's statement.

Cassie got up, and Jesse saw that her glasses were askew, and she was sporting a huge black eye.

"Sorry, Fred. But I'm afraid you're going to have to do better than that!" Cassie retorted, fixing her glasses up. "Look at the facts! We caught Lukas with that pumpkin head right after Lizzie was almost taken out. I think you're just lying to protect him."

"Cassie's making a lot of sense right now. Do you have any evidence to back up why you punched her?" Dan asked.

"In fact, we do." Fred said. "There's something that seemed extremely suspicious, and it's been on my mind for a while now. It's about something that happened in the Great Hall shortly after TorqueDawg was hit with that trap."

"What's that?" Cassie probed.

"Cassie was alone in the room. No-one else there. And she was standing very close to TorqueDawg's picture, which was somehow crossed out." Fred finished.

"That… that doesn't prove anything." Cassie responded. "Lukas is still way guiltier looking!"

"Well, what about what came next?" Jesse said. "When we were down in the basement, we found some very interesting items. Items for the White Pumpkin's evening festivities. And there was one very significant detail."

"What was this evidence?" Lukas questioned.

"Shh, I think Jesse's about to tell everyone." Petra shushed.

"The White Pumpkin had portraits all ready to go, pre-X'd out, one for each of us, except for Cassie." Jesse pointed out.

Stacy gasped in surprise.

"Ooh, that's good." Ivor remarked.

"You're doing great, Jesse. Now go for in for the kill. Metaphorically." Petra encouraged.

"But it was the last piece of evidence, dear friends, that helped us really figure out who we were dealing with here." Jesse continued. "Cats. Dozens of calico cats, and they all looked just, like, Winslow!"

Cassie stepped in-front of Winslow.

"An amusing story, Jesse." She said. "But if you saw all these supposed cats just like mine, then what color is Winslow? Shouldn't be a problem if you saw a hundred."

"Black, white and orange." Fred deadpanned, before teleporting behind Cassie.

"HEY-"

"Oh look, I was right." Fred observed.

"Cassie, is this all true?" Stacy asked, disbelievingly.

"This whole thing has been about your crazy scheme to get a portal key, hasn't it?" Jesse said, approaching Cassie dangerously. "Killing whoever gets in your way."

Cassie slowly clapped.

"How very clever, you two." She appraised. "Well, I guess that's it then. You caught me. I am the murderer!"

Lightning flashed from outside, even though there was no rain and the sun was almost coming up.

"Ugh. You are the WORST, Cassie." Jesse accused.

"NONE OF YOU HAVE ANY IDEA WHAT I'VE BEEN THOUGH!" Cassie screamed. "I've been stuck in this stupid world, with its stupid two moons, FOR YEARS! Trapped! With a portal RIGHT UNDER MY NOSE, but no key to open it! That is, until I finally heard that this world's portal key had been found. I knew it was one of you, so I tried my best to earn your friendship. Figure out who had it."

"Cassie. How could you?" Dan questioned. "We shared cookies together! Cookies!"

"You really think that's an excuse? You're pathetic, Cassie. It doesn't excuse all the horrible things you've done." Jesse insisted.

"Spoken just like a person who has no idea what it feels like to be stuck somewhere you don't belong!" Cassie retorted.

"We need to do something with you, 'Cassie Rose'." Stacy said.

"I vote we build an obsidian prison and surround it with lava!" Stampy suggested.

Cassie went deathly pale at that.

"No no no no no, I won't let you do that! I can't! No!" She panicked. "This is YOUR fault! You did this to me!"

"You did this to yourself." Fred corrected.

Cassie pulled out her enchanted diamond axe. Jesse responded by drawing his sword.

"I'll fight all of you! Each and every one of you! I'll…"

But Cassie didn't get to carry out her threat, for she had backed into a trap and was immediately buried in sand.

"Another trap! We need to dig her out!" Stampy said.

"After everyone she's hurt? She can did herself out." Stacy responded, facing away from the group.

"She did terrible things, but no one deserves this!" Lizzie said.

Jesse decided to stand with Stacy. He saw Fred look at him disapprovingly and shrugged his arms in response. Fred moved to vanish the sand, but it seems he was too late. Cassie's items appeared above the sand.

"Wait. Look." Stampy pointed. "I can't believe it. She's gone."

"What a way to go." Ivor remarked.

"Yeah, I guess in all the chaos, she forgot where her own traps were. Wow." Petra added.

"Wow. The trapper taken out by one of her own traps. That's ironic." Jesse said.

"If only she just asked us for help, we could have avoided this whole thing." Stampy lamented.

Jesse noticed that the sun had finally began to rise.

"Hey, it's morning." He announced. Walking to the window, they saw that the Zombies were poofing into smoke, one by one.

"I guess… I guess that's it then." Stampy said.

"Yeah, we're free." Stacy exclaimed.

"And we're alive. Let's not waste it standing around. There could still be traps everywhere in here!" Ivor reminded.

The group moved to walk outside, when Fred noticed something wrong with the pile of inventory on the sand.

"Um… guys. Where's her axe?" Fred asked.

"Oh crap. You're right." Petra responded. "Her axe isn't there."

"Maybe Cassie isn't as gone as we thought." Jesse said. "But if we hurry, we can get out before anything happens.

And with that, the group left the mansion.

* * *

Author's Notes: Fred punching Cassie. I actually got that from a scene in Jurassic World, where Owen angrily walks up to Hoskins and punches him.

Not much else to say about this one.

Like it? Review. Don't like it, look up something else.

More to follow.


	9. A Portal to Mystery - Endermites

Chapter 9 – Endermites

* * *

Disclaimer: If you have not read **Fred: Admin in Exile** yet. I suggest you read that story first before reading this one.

Before we begin this chapter, I'm going to put it out there that I have decided to release the next two chapters after this chapter at once to make up for the delay.

(Minecraft: Story Mode and its characters belong to Telltale Games, not me.)

* * *

(FRED'S POV)

When they passed through the great hall, Fred saw that the portrait that was above the door was now reflecting Fred in his Admin form, rather than his human form. No one seemed to comment on that as they exited the mansion.

"Ah, I've never been so happy to smell rotting flesh." Ivor said as they breathed in the morning air.

"Yeah that is, yikes, that is pretty rank." Jesse agreed.

"I feel bad about the people who aren't here to smell it." Dan said. "TorqueDawg, Sparklez… and Cassie, I guess."

"Aw, that's a good point." Stampy agreed.

"We tried our hardest, but there was nothing we could do." Jesse responded.

"Oh, we all know that, Jesse." Stampy assured. "It's not your fault."

"Lucky for us, that portal brought you here." Lizzie pointed out.

"Speaking of which, I have no idea how to begin finding our exit portal." Ivor said.

"Well, Cassie said it was right under her nose, right?" Stampy repeated.

"In that case, maybe it's nearby." Fred suggested.

Squinting, Fred saw a yellow shape in the distance. Sure enough, it looked exactly like a portal.

"Hey! Whaddya know, there it is!" Jesse pointed out, spotting the portal.

"A fabulous coincidence!" Ivor commented.

"So, I guess this is goodbye. Huh." Stacy said.

"Yeah. Just let us know if you ever accidentally find yourselves in our world, ha." Lukas added.

"And another thing, if you do ever find yourselves traveling between worlds, do not mention my powers to ANYBODY!" Fred requested. "As far as some people there are concerned, I'm supposed to be dead, and I'd rather not have them figure out I'm alive."

"I mean that's a nice offer and all, but I don't think we'll be portal hopping without a portal key." Lizzie pointed out.

"Oh well I think Stampy's got you covered there." Jesse said.

Dan's eyes widened in realization.

"YOU STOLE THE PORTAL KEY FROM ME?!" Dan glared.

Stampy pulled out the green flint and steel.

"It was just meant to be a prank, a harmless prank, and I'm so sorry, so very very sorry." Stampy apologized.

"Yeah, come on. It's Stampy. You know he would never actually try to hurt anyone." Stacy agreed.

"Hey it's cool, guys. You can share it! Make, like, you own Order of the Stone!" Jesse suggested.

'Or perhaps find another Admin gauntlet and become the new Admins.' Fred added in his head. He wasn't going to say that out-loud.

"Yeah, alright. I guess I could live with that." Dan said.

"Yes. That's a wonderful idea!" Stampy agreed.

"Well, I'm not great at goodbyes, so I'm actually just going to start walking home. Thanks for everything." Stacy said as she turned around and began to walk into the woods behind them.

"Me too! Bye you guys." Lizzie waved as she turned around.

"Travel safe!" Dan said, before joining Lizzie and Stacy.

Stampy put the green flint and steel away.

"BYEEEEEEEEEEE!"

Stampy flailed his arms and ran off towards the others.

"What a strange, strange bunch of individuals." Ivor remarked.

They set off towards the portal in the distance.

"Cassie Whatsername was talking about being trapped here, from another world." Ivor began. "What if she was one of the Old Builders?"

"That's an interesting theory." Fred said. "In all the chaos with Sky City and the White Pumpkin, I almost forgot about those legendary 'Builders'."

"I think you could be right! That totally makes sense!" Jesse added.

"If it's true, I sort of thought Old Builders would be taller." Ivor said.

Fred chuckled at that.

"I just can't believe that we finally met someone who _might_ be an old builder, and she's a pumpkin wearing serial killer. Weird." Petra remarked.

"Well, here we are. Would you care to do the honors Jesse?" Ivor gestured, looking at the portal.

Jesse pulled out his cyan flint and steel and moved to activate the portal.

But something was wrong, the frame remained portal-less.

"Huh? That's weird." Jesse said.

Fred saw Winslow appear at the top of the frame. Straight away, he could smell a trap coming.

"That's strange. I thought…" Ivor began.

The sand beneath them collapsed, and everyone except for Fred fell in. Fred managed to get away in time.

"GUYS!" Fred yelled, peering over the hole.

No response.

Fred saw Winslow jump in after them.

"DAMN!" Fred growled in frustration. He destroyed the fake portal with his powers in frustration and decided to dig down a short distance away from the hole that the others fell in.

* * *

(JESSE'S POV)

Jesse felt pain sear all over his body as he landed face down on dirt.

"Ugh! What happened."

"I can't see a thing."

Lights began to turn on one by one above them. Looking around, Jesse saw immediately that Fred was nowhere to be found.

"Well, that's ominous." Lukas commented.

"Do you hear that?" Ivor asked.

Looking down, Jesse saw that there were Endermites underneath them.

"Endermites!"

"And there it is, Jesse! You're trapped! Stuck!" Cassie's voice echoed around the room. Looking up, Jesse saw Cassie standing above them. She was wearing the White Pumpkin's clothes, except for the mask.

Cassie gave a maniacal laugh.

"Just like I've been in this rotten world!"

"I knew you weren't dead, Cassie. I knew it was way too easy." Jesse said.

"And yet you still walked right into my best and final trap! I don't know how much time you've spent with Endermites, but the poor things are eternally hungry. I would throw the flint and steel up here before I drop you down to find out how sharp their teeth are."

Jesse reached to grab the flint and steel, to find that he had dropped it during the fall.

"Uh, guys. I dropped the flint and steel when we fell. I have no idea where it went." Jesse said.

"Tick tock tick tock, Jesse? What's it gonna be? The flint and steel, or your LIVES?" Cassie asked. "Just give me the flint and steel, and I'll let you go free."

"How about you go find your own?" Jesse responded.

"Have you not been paying attention? That's what I've been trying to do! FOR YEARS!" Cassie growled. "Nope, this is taking too long. I'll just let the Endermites eat you and fish it out of your inventory."

Cassie put on a new White Pumpkin mask.

"It will be the best fishing trip EVER!"

The White Pumpkin turned towards Winslow, who sitting at a bunch of levers.

"Winslow my Pet! Activate the trap." The White Pumpkin commanded.

Winslow cocked his head, raising an eyebrow.

"Want something done right you hafta…" The White Pumpkin walked to the controls. "PREPARE FOR YOUR DEATH!"

The White Pumpkin flipped a lever. At once, the ground beneath Jesse and the others began to split. Lukas, Petra and Ivor on one side, while Jesse was on the other.

Jesse ran and pounded his fist on the iron door at the end of the platform. It wouldn't budge.

"STUPID… DOOR!"

"Augh, it's no use! Without a lever or button, we'll never get these Iron doors open!" Ivor said.

Jesse realized that he still had the Ender pearls that he stole from the chest back in the White Pumpkin's basement.

"Just hold on guys, I'm gonna get up to the control panel!" Jesse said.

Jesse threw the Ender pearl, which landed right on the edge of the platform. At once, Jesse felt himself spinning and he appeared in purple particles holding onto the platform.

"Gah! I forgot how disorienting that was." Jesse groaned. He climbed onto the platform and flipped the lever.

"Uh, it just started going faster." Lukas said.

"She booby-trapped her BOOBY-TRAPS? That is so… paranoid." Jesse commented. He pulled out his sword and hit the lever with it, knocking it out of place before grabbing it.

"What? You thought you could do it? Just like that?" The White Pumpkin's voice taunted. "Trying to get 'leverage.'"

The White Pumpkin landed in-front of Jesse, her axe missing Jesse's head by an inch.

"Gimme that key, Jesse!" The White Pumpkin demanded.

Jesse ducked just as the White Pumpkin moved to swing her axe, barely avoiding having his head taken off.

With a swing of his sword, Jesse knocked the White Pumpkin over the edge, but she was too quick. She pulled out an Ender Pearl and threw it, teleporting away.

Looking over the edge, Jesse saw that Lukas, Ivor and Petra were nowhere to be seen.

"Guys?! No! NOOO!"

"Hey Jesse!" Petra's voice whispered.

Looking down, Jesse breathed a sigh of relief when he saw that they were just underneath the platform he was on.

"Guys! Holy crap, you're all alive! Thank goodness!" Jesse sighed.

"Yeah, for now." Petra responded.

"Don't worry, I found a lever!" Jesse said.

"Throw it down!" Lukas instructed.

"Okay, get ready."

Jesse tossed the lever down, which Petra caught.

"Got it!"

"Okay, you guys get to safety. I need to find Fred and that Flint and Steel." Jesse instructed.

Walking back up the steps, Jesse saw the White Pumpkin standing in-front of him.

"You're not a fast learner, are you?" The White Pumpkin retorted. With a cry, she charged towards Jesse. Acting quickly, Jesse jumped over to another platform.

An Ender Pearl landed on a platform, and the White Pumpkin appeared.

"I grow tired of this game, Jesse."

Looking to the left, Jesse saw the flint and steel lying on a dirt bridge. Unfortunately, The White Pumpkin spotted it as well.

"The key! You didn't have it either?!" The White Pumpkin asked disbelievingly. She pulled out an Ender Pearl. "Well now, it's mine."

Jesse pulled out an Ender Pearl.

"Nope!"

He aimed towards the flint and steel, but the White Pumpkin appeared and grabbed onto him, messing up his arm. Jesse ended up teleporting towards another platform.

Jesse saw the White Pumpkin running towards the flint and steel.

"No. We are going HOME." Jesse insisted. He pulled out an Ender Pearl and threw it towards the White Pumpkin, then raised his fist.

Just as the Ender Pearl landed and Jesse teleported, he brought his fist down, knocking the White Pumpkin over. He jumped on top of her.

"No! You can't do this! I've waited too long!" The White Pumpkin struggled.

"It's… mine. Cassie! I won't let you have it!" Jesse insisted.

But before either of them can shake the other off them, Winslow approached the flint and steel and began to hit it toward the edge.

"NO! NO, NO WINSLOW! DON'T TOUCH THAT!" The White Pumpkin panicked.

Winslow ignored her.

"NO, NO, NO! NO WINSLOW! BAD KITTY! STOP IT! Winslow! Good boy! Sweet kitty! Bring that to Master!"

"You stupid cat!" Jesse began.

"Don't threaten my cat. Only _I_ threaten my cat." The White Pumpkin reprimanded.

With a smug grin, Winslow knocked the flint and steel off the edge.

"NOOOOO!"

Jesse jumped on top of the White Pumpkin, but he was too late, for the White Pumpkin had thrown the Ender Pearl.

With a laugh, the White Pumpkin disappeared. She reappeared on the sand bridge, just in time to catch the flint and steel.

"Ah, there you are! After all this time, I'm FREE!" She exclaimed. "Winslow? We have to go!"

Winslow landed next to the White Pumpkin.

"What have I told you about wandering off?"

Jesse landed on the sand bridge.

"I think you should give that back, Cassie." Jesse suggested.

"No, I'm afraid not." The White Pumpkin retorted, before flipping a lever.

The sand bridge collapsed beneath Jesse. He managed to jump in time to land onto the edge of the White Pumpkin's side.

With a grunt, Jesse pulled himself up.

"I'll give you one thing! You are INCREDIBLY tenacious!" The White Pumpkin complimented.

Jesse charged, but the White Pumpkin was too quick. She used the flint and steel to knock Jesse back. Before he could react, a blue wall of 3 block high flames was blocking his path.

"That's Netherrack, Jesse!" The White Pumpkin pointed out. "It stays on fire FOREVER!"

The White Pumpkin began to walk away.

"Well, Winslow. That's the last of the obstacles. We're finally going home!"

She flipped a lever, opening a door and revealing the real portal. But Winslow decided to take a nap instead of following the White Pumpkin.

"Winslow. Winslow, come on. Oh for the love of… you know I love you but you make me very tired sometimes."

Jesse saw Lukas, Ivor and Petra hiding above them. Lukas had a water bucket ready.

"Hey! Cats suck!" Jesse called out.

"What did you say?"

"You heard me! Cats suck! Pigs are way cooler."

The White Pumpkin approached Jesse.

"I don't know what you're playing at, but I'm bored with it." The White Pumpkin said.

At once, Petra leapt down and slashed the White Pumpkin's mask with her enchanted golden sword. A huge slash was left on the face of the mask.

Lukas tipped the water bucket and extinguished the blue flames.

As Ivor moved to climb up the ledge, the cyan flint and steel landed in his hand.

"What's going… Ha! I've got it! Excellent! I did it!" Ivor exclaimed.

"You're all dying now!" The White Pumpkin growled.

"Uh, no thank you." Ivor responded, throwing the flint and steel to Jesse.

"Got it!" Jesse yelled as he caught it.

The White Pumpkin gave another growl before leaping at Jesse.

With a swish of the flint and steel, a tower of flames shot the White Pumpkin in the air, and with a scream, she landed on the suspended platform above the Endermites.

"NOOOOOOO!"

Looking over the edge, Jesse saw Cassie remove the White Pumpkin while coughing.

Well Jesse, I bet you're reeeal proud of yourself. Look at me! STUCK AGAIN! OUT OF ENDER PEARLS!" She ranted.

"And that's where she wanted us to end up." Ivor commented.

"Trapped… in my own trap… Ha, of course! Of course."

"Well, at least you're still alive." Jesse pointed out. "That's more than TorqueDawg or Captain Sparklez can say."

"You're right. Of course you're right." Cassie agreed.

"Hey, guys. Over here!" Jesse heard Fred's voice call. He moved to approach him, but Cassie's scared voice called out again.

"Wait! At least don't leave me here all alone." She pleaded. "Give me my cat, my dear sweet Winslow! He's my best- my only friend! Please!"

"Gotta say, Cassie. I'm detecting a lot of remorse in your voice." Fred observed. "In fact, let me tell you a story. My life story, in fact."

And Fred launched right into his life-story again, about how he was from a world that was currently covered by bedrock, about his two friends Romeo and Xara. He talked about how he was betrayed and almost killed by Romeo. He then went on to explain in great detail what his life was like living in exile and that he could relate to Cassie about it. Cassie looked guiltier and guiltier by the second. He also said that attending conventions and using his powers to blow off steam in the nether were the only things that kept him from going insane during those 9 decades in isolation.

Then at last, he finished with something that shocked the entire group.

"I can see that you're having some regrets about your actions, which in my book, makes you a lot better than Romeo at the moment. Normally I'm a very forgiving person, but what you did means that I can't just forgive you right off the bat, Cassie. You've got some making up to do, which leads me to my offer."

Fred clapped his hands and bedrock stairs appeared around Cassie.

"I understand that you hate it here in this world, and even though you still won't be going back to your own world, you can join us and travel with us back to our world." Fred offered.

Everyone gasped in horror.

"Fred!" Ivor exclaimed.

"NO!" Petra yelled. "She is NOT coming with us."

"Look, just trust me on this." Fred insisted.

"Fred, I seriously hope you know what you're doing." Jesse said. "I don't want to end up going back into that Portal Hallway just for Cassie to stab us in the back. Are you sure it's worth it?"

"It is." Fred said. "I was always good at reading human emotions, and that there just screams remorse."

Fred turned to Cassie.

"So, are you going to come with is."

"Fine, count me in." Cassie huffed, before climbing the bedrock stairs.

"I'm warning you, White Pumpkin." Petra growled. "If you so much as attempt to betray us…"

She finished her statement by dragging a gloved finger across her throat threateningly.

The group alongside Cassie and Winslow approached the portal.

"Wow. So you kept the REAL portal hidden down here all this time." Jesse said.

"Unless this one is a trap too." Ivor responded.

"I am going to outright say that this one is the real portal." Cassie said.

Fred pulled out the flint and steel.

"Here goes nothing." He said, before flicking the flint and steel. To their relief, a green portal appeared in the frame.

"Good sign so far!" Ivor commented.

"I just said that this was the real portal." Cassie deadpanned. "And you can clearly see it for yourself."

"Okay, okay. We get it. Jeez." Jesse responded.

"Well, who's going first?" Lukas asked.

"We're a team, we all go together." Jesse insisted.

Everyone nodded.

"Ready?" Jesse asked. They began to count to three, before they all ran into the portal, except for Ivor.

Looking back, Ivor gave a wink.

"Adventure!" Ivor exclaimed before following them into the portal.

* * *

Author's Notes: And here you go. The first major change that Fred has on the story; Cassie joining the group.

I am so looking forward to the next episode. I've few… surprises in store for that one. _**(Maniacal Laugh)**_

Like it? Review. Don't like it, then look up another story.

Until next time.


	10. Interlude

Chapter 10 – Interlude

* * *

Disclaimer: If you have not read **Fred: Admin in Exile** yet. I suggest you read that story first before reading this one.

(Minecraft: Story Mode and its characters belong to Telltale Games, not me.)

* * *

(ROMEO'S POV)

Romeo was bored.

Of course, he should not be surprised. Things do tend to get that way when he had nothing to do. It had been years since he had found a candidate to be his champion, but just like all the others, the newest candidate went down the same path and tried to rebel against him.

Seriously though, finding a friend shouldn't be this difficult.

He had been in a lousy mood lately. Yesterday, Xar- no, Prisoner X had gotten out of her cell and tried once again to escape the sunshine institute. Good thing the Warden's associates knew what they were doing.

Lately he has been keeping an eye on this new group of heroes that had named themselves 'The New Order of the Stone'.

Which brings him to his next question, what happened to Soren, Gabriel, Magnus and Ellegaard?

Ever since the Wither-Storm fiasco, everyone stopped talking about them and about this new group lead by someone named Jesse.

Over the last year, he had watched the New Order like a hawk under various disguises. And he had taken mental notes of the members of this group, seeing if any of them are candidates worthy of the honor of being his champion.

Axel? No. He spends too much time running around blowing stuff up with TNT alongside Magnus in Boom-Town.

Olivia? No. She reminded him too much of Xa- no. Stop thinking about her.

Petra? Maybe she might be a good candidate, but she did have a fiery temper.

Ivor? Hell no.

Lukas? Just not that type of person.

Jesse on the other hand, he was perfect. He had all of the qualities that Romeo had been looking for. He was a great leader, skilled in combat, excellent problem solver.

At once, Romeo's foul mood dissipated completely. This could be it, the perfect friend for him.

But a few weeks ago, while Romeo was doing one of his observations, he noticed something strange. Namely; one of the citizens that lived in Jesse's town.

Normally, he tried not to think about his old friends, but that hair, strikingly familiar. it reminded him of Fred. He also seemed about the right build as well.

No, no. It couldn't be. It wouldn't be. Fred was dead, Romeo very clearly remembered seeing Fred disappear in white smoke right in-front of him and Xara while he was getting carried away. Then again, he was tired at the time of seeing that figure, and it wasn't as if he was watching that closely either. It was probably nothing, probably just a trick of the light.

Thinking about it, he did notice that Jesse hadn't been seen around town for a few days. Pfft, probably off on one of his mini adventures of course.

Deciding to pay the Warden a visit, he clapped his hands and disappeared in purple particles.

* * *

Author's Notes: This chapter wasn't meant to be long at all, just a quick interlude showing some of Romeo's thoughts back in Jesse's world while Jesse was away battling White Pumpkins.

Next chapter will be the start of Episode 7.

Like it? Review. Don't like it, look up another story.


	11. Access Denied - Crown Mesa

Chapter 11 – Crown Mesa

* * *

Disclaimer: If you have not read **Fred: Admin in Exile** yet. I suggest you read that story first before reading this one.

(Minecraft: Story Mode and its characters belong to Telltale Games, not me.)

* * *

(FRED'S POV)

Fred was getting extremely tired.

He had already lost track of just how much time they spent inside that stupid portal hallway. All that time, and they weren't any closer to finding the correct portal home.

In that time, they have stumbled across many different worlds, with many different climates and societies, each just as unlikely as the other.

One portal took them to a world very similar to their own, but in that world, Villagers could speak fluent English. Needless to say, Fred found their society weird. They even started worshipping him when they found out about his Admin powers. (1)

Another portal took them into a world where the land was extremely unstable. Hills stretched infinitely skyward and there seemed to be no such thing as bedrock in that world, which meant you could dig down forever, and ever, and ever. Fred wondered if there were such things as Sky Far lands and Void Far lands. (2) (3)

The next portal took them into a world that seemed normal at first. It was only until they began to dig down that they saw the anomaly within this world. Whatever generated the land for this world seemed to have a hard time with the caves, for Fred saw that the caves got screwed up and infinitely repeated themselves over and over. The only thing that didn't get repeated was the locations of different ores such as Iron, Gold and Diamond. (4)

Another world they visited was one, where the Far lands were extremely close. Not only that, but there were also Far Lands in the sky, proving Fred's earlier theory. (5)

There were also other types of worlds.

A world completely filled with water. As they exited that world, a wave of water pushed Ivor into another world, prompting the rest of the group to follow.

"Augh, not again!" Petra complained as they had to follow Ivor into the other world.

More shenanigans happened when a squid got stuck on Jesse's head and he blindly ran into another world. Fred saw that Petra was starting to get annoyed, and he didn't blame her.

When they exited a world that had a pink portal, instead of Lukas following them out, a person in a suit with a top hat followed them instead. Jesse pushed him back inside that world and pulled Lukas out.

"What just happened?" Lukas asked.

Petra stormed off angrily in response.

More worlds they visited were; Sheep world, Anti-Gravity world and a world that had only contained the Ice Plains Spikes Biome.

"OW!" Petra responded when Ivor threw a snowball against the back of her head as they exited the Ice world.

It wasn't until they were blasted out of Fire World that Petra finally snapped.

"That was crazy! Why would there even be a fire world?" Jesse commented. He gasped when he noticed that Lukas was on fire. Acting quickly, he helped put it out.

"Thanks, guys." Lukas said, panting. He pulled out a book and wrote something down in it. "I marked that one down as 'Fire World.'"

"Wow. How'd you come up with _that_ gem of a name?" Petra retorted.

"Okay, did I miss something here?" Lukas asked, confused.

"Yeah, what's up with you?" Jesse agreed.

"What's up with me? What's UP? I'm tired of all this useless portal-hopping trying to find our way home." Petra angrily explained. "What's on the other side of that portal? A lake of fire and netherrack? Awesome! Let's go there!"

"Come on, Petra. I know it's tough, but we're the Order of the Stone! We don't just give up!" Jesse reasoned.

"Ugh. I know you love your pep-talks and all, Jesse. But they don't exactly get us any closer to home, do they?" Petra responded.

Fred and Cassie looked at each other, before shrugging.

"Lukas, you're on fire again!" Jesse pointed out. Fred responded by dousing all of them in water.

"See, ugh. This is what I'm talking about." Petra continued. "We're stuck in a rut, go through a portal, avoid dying long enough to get back to this stupid hallway."

"Wash, rinse, repeat. Yes." Ivor finished. "It would be nice if whoever made these left some sort of signs, guideposts."

"It's not like we have directions about how all this works. So, of course, there is going to be some trial and error." Jesse said.

"And error, and error, and error and error!" Petra angrily responded before storming off again.

"Petra? Where are you going?" Ivor asked.

"There may not be guideposts, but someone must be able to tell us how to navigate these stupid portals." Petra explained. She approached a red portal with a redstone-block framework. "Okay, this one's redstone. Redstone means smart people. Hopefully smart enough to help us find the way home."

"At the very least, it's gotta be better than 'fire world.'"

"Seems a bit flimsy." Ivor commented.

"Petra, I promise you. We'll find the portal home." Jesse reassured.

"It's either that or die trying, right?"

"So what are you saying here, huh? That you've made up your mind? You're just gonna go through this portal and that's it?" Lukas asked.

"Maybe I am, maybe I'm just saying that I'm tired of Jesse calling the shots, Every, single, TIME!"

You could have heard a pin drop in the silence that followed after Petra finished that statement. Even Winslow didn't make a sound.

"Whoa!" Cassie said.

Lukas and Ivor nodded in agreement.

As Jesse and Petra glared at each other, Fred went to step in, seeing that an argument was about to break out.

"Hey, break it up. Both of you." Fred demanded, teleporting between them.

Jesse continued to glare.

"Don't even have anything to say in your defense?" Petra questioned.

"I SAID BREAK IT UP!" Fred shouted. "Look, I understand that you're angry, Petra. But that does not give you the right to take it out on Jesse here. So how about we all just apologize, and we can forget about this argument. Okay?"

Jesse sighed.

"I'm sorry, Petra. I think I just got… carried away." Jesse apologized.

"I accept your apology." Petra accepted.

"Now that's more like it." Fred said, putting on his human disguise. "Now, Petra. You were saying that you wanted to go through this portal, right?"

"Yes." Petra responded.

"Well, if you really think that portal is the one we should go through, then that's what we're gonna do." Jesse said.

"Thanks Jesse." Petra nodded.

And with that, the group of six plus Winslow walked through the portal. As soon as Fred walked through, he suddenly got a really bad feeling about this world.

* * *

As they landed in the world, Fred saw that it was just an empty mesa biome. Nothing else here. So why was this world making him so nervous.

"Guys, I think this is a Mesa biome. Awesome!" Jesse commented.

"Oh man, you're right. I mean all the sand and clay and everything." Lukas agreed. He pulled out his book again and wrote something down.

"Hey Lukas, I've been meaning to ask you, what's that?" Jesse questioned.

"Oh! Ah, it's just a… y'know, a book I picked up back at Cassie's place." Lukas explained. "It's all about different biomes and stuff."

"Great idea, Lukas." Jesse said.

"How, uh, how you doing Petra?" Lukas asked.

"So much for my hunch with that redstone portal, huh?" Petra responded. "No 'advanced civilization' anywhere."

"I don't know about you guys, but something about this world seems off. I really don't want to hang around." Fred added.

"Hey, don't beat yourselves up, you guys. We've seen worse." Jesse pointed out.

"Yeah! No one's on fire, no squids." Lukas agreed.

"No squids on fire." Ivor said.

"No flaming squids on people's heads." Cassie added.

"Maybe you're right." Petra conceded.

Ivor noticed sand in the ground.

"Hm. Would you look at that. Sand." Ivor commented.

"It looks like some sort of road." Lukas added.

"Going to write about it in your little journal?" Ivor teased.

"Hey, it's not little. But yes. Probably." Lukas retorted.

"Let me get some height and take a look at what we might be walking into." Fred said. He moved to fly, but for some reason, he couldn't.

"Whoa! What's happening to you?" Cassie asked.

Looking down, Fred saw that he seemed to glitch in a magnitude of colors every time he tried to fly.

"Okay, maybe I'll just teleport instead." Fred suggested.

That just made him glitch worse.

With a huff, Fred went to reapply his human disguise which somehow got taken off without his notice. He glitched again.

"Not only is this world giving me a bad feeling, but something is interfering with my Admin powers." Fred deduced. "I can't fly, I can't teleport, and I can't even disguise myself. Just, damn, perfect!"

"Well, we're not going to find out where this road goes just standing on it." Jesse said.

"Jesse's right. Come on." Petra agreed.

A rattling sound got their attention.

"What was that?" Jesse asked.

Petra's face brightened considerably.

"Ha! There ARE people here!"

She ran off. Jesse and Fred followed her.

"Petra, wait!"

"Shh. Get down." Petra ordered.

"What is it?" Jesse asked.

"Look."

Fred saw what they were looking at. It was a Zombie, walking around in broad daylight without catching fire. A blinking red device was on the back of its head, and it had glowing red eyes.

"What on earth is that on the back of its head?" Fred asked.

"I don't know anything more than you do, pal." Petra responded. "Maybe that's this world's 'thing'? Zombies and monsters come out in the daytime?"

"Either way, it's just a zombie. Anyone who knows how to fight can easily wipe the floor with that thing." Fred pointed out.

"Butt-kicking time?" Petra asked.

"Butt-kicking time." Jesse said with a grin.

Petra stood out, cracked her muscles, unsheathed her sword and dived straight in. She attacked the zombie with the sword, only for it to flinch a little, before turning around and looking at her.

"What the-?" Petra panicked. "There's something weird about this zombie. I could actually use a hand."

Fred dived in next, he used his Admin strength, which thankfully wasn't suppressed to knock the zombie down. His arm became incredibly sore however after attacking the zombie with it. He spawned a sword in his hand and plunged it directly on top of the redstone device, breaking it. The zombie poofed into smoke.

"Wow. That was not the plan." Fred panted. That was the first time that he had gotten physically tired since Romeo's betrayal.

"I should hope not. It was just one zombie. What was the problem?" Ivor asked. Cassie, Winslow and Lukas trailing behind him.

"Nuh-uh. That thing was, like, 'Super Zombie.' Stronger, tougher, faster." Petra commented. "I hope there's not something wrong with me."

"Don't worry, Petra. It isn't just you. I haven't been this exhausted in decades." Fred assured.

"We had that much trouble with one. I can't even figure out how we'd fight a whole horde of them."

Sure enough, a whole horde of super zombies were approaching them.

"DAMN IT, PETRA! YOU JUST HAD TO GO AND JINX IT!" Cassie screamed.

Fred noticed that they were all moving in sync. Fred would not be exaggerating if he said that this unnerved him a lot.

"I don't know about you guys, but I'd really like to figure out a better way to handle these super zombies." Jesse said.

As they backed into the wall, the zombies did something totally unexpected. They stopped and slumped over, all in unison.

"That… was unexpected." Lukas commented.

"Did we do that?" Jesse asked.

"With what? The power of our imaginations?" Ivor questioned.

Lukas pulled out his sword and poked a zombie with it. It did not react at all.

"What on earth is that thing?" Jesse asked, pointing to the blinking device on the back of a zombie's head.

"Definitely seems redstone… ish. Right?" Lukas deduced.

"Fascinating." Ivor commented.

"Maybe those redstone things are what makes the zombies so… blank." Jesse suggested.

"Makes sense to me. I'm starting to wonder if we should—"

An ear-piercing sound penetrated Fred's ears. He covered his ears in response, but his ear drums still felt like they were about to explode.

As they moved to walk away, the sound stopped, and the zombies woke up again. In unison, they turned around and walked in the opposite direction.

"They're leaving? Just like that?" Ivor questioned disbelievingly.

"They seem to be going back the way we came." Cassie observed.

"This might sound crazy, but I feel like they're trying to lead us somewhere." Lukas said.

"You're right. That does sound crazy." Petra retorted.

"I think Lukas might be right. We should follow them. See where they go." Jesse instructed.

"So… let's get moving." Petra responded.

After a few minutes of walking, the zombies led them to some kind of town on top of a mountain. They followed the zombies up the wooden stairs that led to the top of the mountain.

They came across a town, but there was no one around.

"I don't see any people anywhere." Petra observed.

"I've heard of quiet, but this is like mega quiet." Jesse said.

"Yeah, I'm starting to get a little unnerved here." Cassie agreed.

"This coming from the White Pumpkin?" Petra said in response. "I must be dreaming."

Winslow growled.

"Petra!" Fred warned.

"Stay alert, and don't let your guard down for one second." Jesse instructed.

Petra ran toward a pile of redstone blocks.

"Hey! Told you guys there would be redstone." She said.

"Nice!"

"Speaking of redstone… I'd like to investigate those… things on the back of the zombie's heads." Ivor said.

"Ooh, yeah. I want to see those too." Lukas added.

"Wait. What are you doing Ivor?" Jesse asked.

"What's it look like?" Ivor responded. "I'm going to rip this redstone thing out of this zombie's head. For science. They're sleeping or something. It'll be easy."

Jesse jumped up and down.

"I wanna do it!" He cried.

"Oh, well. If you insist." Ivor conceded. He stepped aside to let Jesse at the Zombie.

Jesse grabbed the redstone device and proceeded to try and pull it. Fred saw that it didn't seem to budge. After a few seconds, an electric shock ran through Jesse's body, knocking him to the floor.

"It shocked me!" Jesse exclaimed.

"Are you okay?" Lukas asked.

"Yes, well. At least we learned something new; they can't be removed. Not with our bare hands anyway." Ivor relayed.

Fred saw a person walking in the distance.

"Look, there's someone." Fred pointed out.

"Think he's friendly?" Lukas asked.

"Hello? Hel-lo?" Jesse called out.

The figure ignored him.

"Maybe his hearing is bad or something?" Jesse suggested.

"I'm going to get closer and attempt to talk to him." Fred said. "Maybe he can tell us more about what's going on."

Everyone nodded.

"Okay just… be careful." Petra responded.

"Yeah. I mean there's still a lot about this place we don't know." Lukas agreed.

Approaching the person, Fred attempted to initiate conversation.

"Hi there?" Fred greeted.

The person continued to ignore him.

"Uh, hello? Could you perhaps tell us please what is…"

The figure stood up and looked at Fred. For a moment, Fred felt as though he had stepped back about 100 years in time. This guy had glowing eyes. Red sclera and an even redder pupil. These eyes and Romeo's admin eyes were way too similar for Fred's comfort. He gave a startled scream in response.

"I-I. What? Huh?" Fred stammered. He noticed that this person had the same blinking red device on the back of his head. Whatever was going on here, it completely justified the nervous feeling Fred had in his stomach ever since arriving in this world.

Jesse, Lukas, Petra, Cassie, Winslow and Ivor approached Fred.

"Conversation go any better up close?" Ivor asked. "We couldn't really hear from back there. We heard quite the… well not even a scream, more of a yelp."

"We need to get out of this world, now." Fred responded. His tone entirely serious.

"What? But why?" Lukas asked.

"No, I'm afraid I must agree with Fred. There's something wrong here and I'd like to find our Exit Portal as soon as possible." Ivor agreed.

Fred caught a glimpse of a figure sliding past in his peripheral vision. It seems the others saw it too.

"Someone just ran into that house." Fred pointed out.

"Really? I don't see anyone." Petra responded.

"Come on." Jesse said. "Whoever they are, maybe they've got some answers. Oh, and Fred. Maybe you should show your human form?"

"Except I can't. And besides, if this person sees me in my Admin form, they'll assume straight away that we might be able to end whatever is going on here." Fred insisted. "Which is what we want."

Peeking into the house that the figure ran in. Fred saw the figure digging through a chest.

"Ah, ha, ha, ha. Yes, yes. There you are. That's the ticket." The figure exclaimed loudly. Fred saw that she did not have a device on the back of her head, which means she might be able to help them. However, she did pull out one of those devices from the chest.

"Oh, these are perfect. Excellent."

"Correct me if I'm wrong. But those things don't seem to belong to you." Fred said, completely startling the figure.

"That you, PAMA?" She trembled. Fred saw that she was dark-skinned, and she had grey hair.

PAMA? Fred had never heard of such a thing.

"What?" Fred asked in confusion.

The dark-skinned woman calmed down considerably.

"Okay then, okay. Who sent you?" She demanded. "I didn't survive this long to get picked off by some scrub. Especially some weirdly little blue-skinned scrub like you!"

"For your information, I am an admin." Fred answered. "And what in the blue-blazes is PA-MA?"

"Ha, like you seriously expect me to fall for that one? Must thing I'm some sort of-"

The dark-skinned woman faltered upon seeing Fred's confused expression.

"Wait. You're serious? You don't know?" She asked.

Fred shook his head.

"Okay. I don't remember seeing you here before. Eyes aren't red. But that must mean… but how?"

The rest of the group walked up the steps.

"And there are more of you? This should be… it's… impossible."

The woman turned her expression into a glare.

"Out with it, who are you people? What's going on here? She demanded.

"I'm sensing some hostility." Ivor remarked.

"I know it might sound crazy, but we came here through a portal." Jesse explained.

She widened her eyes.

"A portal? A PORTAL portal? Really?" She asked.

Jesse nodded.

"Okay, okay, okay, okay, okay, uh. Been alone for a while so this is a lot to take in right now." She commented. "The people – the citizens of Crown Mesa. You've met them, right?"

"Actually, yes. Just talked to someone outside. What is going on with their eyes?" Fred asked.

The woman put her hand on Fred's shoulder.

"I know it's probably hard to understand right now but… if you meet any more people, please don't hurt them. They're my friends." She explained. "They're good people. I promise."

She suddenly paled.

"Oh, oh, oh no no no. I've wasted too much time." She panicked.

"Jesse? Fred? Don't look now, but we've got company!" Lukas informed them.

"Is this what you were scared of?" Jesse asked. "There are only four of them and seven of- Hey, where'd she go?"

"Well, they're definitely not ignoring us anymore." Petra pointed out.

* * *

Sure enough, more red-eyed people were storming the cabin they were in.

Author's Notes: Yep. I'm going to end it here.

I made some references to things in this chapter. Let me explain what they are.

Element Animation Villager Series.

Minecraft Cubic Chunks mod.

Void Far Lands as a result of said mod.

'What happened to this Minecraft Seed?' by AntVenom will give you more information on this topic.

Sky Far Lands which can be created from either Cubic Chunks Mod or the customizable world setting.

Stay tuned for the next chapter.

Like it? Review. Don't like it, then look up something else.

More to follow.


	12. Access Denied - PAMA

Chapter 12 – Prototype: Autonomous Management Agent

* * *

Disclaimer: If you have not read **Fred: Admin in Exile** yet. I suggest you read that story first before reading this one.

(Minecraft: Story Mode and its characters belong to Telltale Games, not me.)

* * *

(JESSE'S POV)

Of course.

The one moment that they let their guard down, that is when the red-eyed people decide to attack.

Winslow hissed at them as they approached the group.

"Jesse? What do we do here?" Lukas asked.

"They don't look happy." Petra observed.

"They don't look anything." Lukas corrected.

"Just, act like they do. Blend in." Jesse instructed.

"How, exactly?" Cassie asked.

"Try to… look vacant." Jesse suggested. They all tried to match the red-eyed people's faces. It didn't work. "It's not working. Uh, make the sound they make."

"EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!" Lukas imitated.

Fred facepalmed.

"_You are not from this place._" All four of the people said, in unison.

"Hey! Weirdos! Back off!" Jesse commanded.

"_You will not command PAMA. That is silly!_" They responded.

"Yeah, I don't think they liked that." Petra commented.

"_A decision has been made. PAMA has questions._"

A citizen grabbed Petra by the arm, she swung a punch in the face using her other arm in response, knocking the head sideways. It slowly turned back as the citizen glared at her.

"_You will come to PAMA._" They ordered.

"No way are you even considering this, Jesse!" Petra yelled in Jesse's ear. "Since when do we take orders from whatever the heck these things are?!"

"Why not go? We certainly won't get to the bottom of this if we stick around here." Ivor reasoned.

"I'm with Ivor on this one." Fred said.

"Agreed." Cassie agreed.

"Okay, we'll come along quietly." Jesse conceded.

"Why would you say that?!" Petra snapped.

"Just work with me here, okay, Petra? I have a plan!" Jesse reasoned.

"Fine. We'll go along with these freaks. For now." Petra conceded.

"_Your cooperation is… wise!_" The citizens responded.

Outside.

"_You will follow us to PAMA!_"

"Yes, we're following. Doesn't it look like we're following?" Jesse responded.

"I just hope you know what you're doing!" Petra said. "We don't have any reason to think whoever's at the end of this march is gonna be in our corner."

"That woman we met back there told us not to hurt them." Jesse reminded. "So I figure we go along with it for now and see where they take us."

"All right."

"Whatever happens… we're ready for it!"

The citizens led Jesse's group to a raised platform. Jesse gasped upon seeing what they were showing them. A giant computer screen made out of green redstone lamps was booting up.

"What is—What is that?" Lukas asked.

The screen displayed a giant smiley face.

"I have no idea." Petra responded.

"You don't suppose it's friendly, do you?" Ivor suggested.

"I don't know, this thing is giving me really bad vibes." Fred commented.

"Friendly or not, I think we're about to find out." Jesse said.

"_**Greetings friends. I am PAMA.**_" It introduced itself. The robotic voice echoing as if coming from a giant loudspeaker. "_**We have much work ahead of us, but maybe it can even be… fun. If you choose to cooperate, that is.**_"

"Sorry if this is a dumb question, but am I talking to PAMA right now? What is PAMA?" Jesse questioned.

"_**Some might call me 'a computer', a thinking-machine, though there has never been a computer like me.**_" PAMA answered. "_**My job is to be useful.**_"

"_**Using redstone chips, I have connected to the people of this town and helped them be useful. Coordinated. I have made their world perfect. Thanks to me, there is no wasted activity. No wasted thought. I am connected to them, and they are connected to me. A beautiful web of productivity and efficiency.**_"

"Whoa. Back up a second. I see what you're doing to this town. It's called 'Mind Control', and it is _NOT_ perfect!" Fred said, clearly disgusted by what PAMA is doing.

The face disappeared, being replaced by a set of three flashing dots.

"_**Processing Information…**_" PAMA said.

"Processing Information?" Cassie repeated.

"It said it's a 'thinking machine'… thinking must take time?" Ivor questioned.

The face reappeared on the giant green screen.

"_**I have consulted my databases. My list of everyone and everything in this world, and my conclusion is that you are not from here.**_" PAMA concluded. "_**I would like to ask you some questions, to expand my databanks.**_"

The face was replaced by a giant question mark.

"_**How did you get here? I am very excited for the acquisition of new knowledge.**_"

"We landed here after jumping through a portal." Jesse explained. "A sort of doorway connecting different worlds."

"_**More fascinating information to compile.**_" PAMA responded.

The dots reappeared again, a second passed before the face reappeared once more.

"_**What a lovely day!**_" PAMA commented randomly. "_**I am very interested in this portal and look forward to extracting information of what is on the other side.**_"

Jesse felt a pair of hands grab him from behind. Every single other member of the group was also grabbed by the citizens. Fred tried to yank himself free, but it seemed that touching one of those people disabled his powers entirely.

"JESSE!" Petra cried. She was being dragged towards a machine.

"PETRA!"

"_**We could have just talked this out, you know.**_"

"PAMA, you better let her go, or I promise, you will regret it." Jesse threatened.

"_**I will let this one, Petra, go as long as you can provide me with the information I require.**_" PAMA replied. "_**This world reached peak efficiency quite some time ago. Unfortunately, this meant that I had no more job to do. No more things or people to help. Until you arrived, that is. Tell me, what is your world like?**_"

The question mark appeared again.

"_**Describe it. Is it very much like this one? Or completely different?**_"

"It's a heck of a lot greener than this place." Jesse responded. "Just imagine grass and trees instead of sand and clay."

Petra nodded nervously.

"_**That sounds lovely. It really does. I think I would like to see this world for myself. If I could send my townspeople, my friends, through to other worlds, we could continue to grow and expand. It would be lovely. Tell me, where is the portal that leads out of this world?**_"

The question mark appeared again.

"_**You could help me make everyone, everywhere, more efficient. Help them become useful.**_"

"PAMA, I can't tell you because I don't know! Honest." Jesse answered. "After all, if we knew where it was, do you really think we'd still be here?"

"_**Your logic is sound, and your tone is genuine, but the information is… not useful. My job is to be useful, I have completed my job here and must be allowed to expand and continue to be useful. PAMA thanks you for being so helpful.**_"

The citizens guided Petra to the machine.

"LET ME GO!" Lukas struggled.

As the machine sprung into action, Petra let out a scream. Jesse saw four towers come out of the ground, and a sticky piston spring into action above Petra.

Oh no, Jesse knew exactly what it was going to do. Oh no. This cannot be happening. Please don't.

"Jesse-"

The sticky piston shoved the device down on top of Petra's head.

Jesse let out a shocked gasp in response.

After what seemed like an eternity. The sticky piston retracted, to show a horrifying sight. Petra's facial expressions were now blank, and her eyes were now just as red as the citizens around them.

"_**Welcome, Petra. Yay!**_" PAMA's voice exclaimed in happiness.

Jesse let out a loud scream. Fred looked like he was going to be sick.

Next, they guided Lukas into the machine. No. Not him too.

The sticky piston once again sprang into action and shoved down over his head as the citizens led Jesse to the other side of the platform.

"_**You may not have any information about portals, but your brain may prove to contain other useful items.**_"

"Jesse, I can't teleport, nor can I use my strength to get my hands free from these people. What are we going to do?" Fred panicked.

Jesse turned towards the giant screen.

"Big mistake, PAMA. I'm not going down without a fight." Jesse growled.

PAMA responded with a frowny face.

Petra stepped in-front of Jesse.

"_Wouldn't you like to feel useful? It feels nice._" She said in her voice, but at the same time, it wasn't her voice. It seemed to be a mixture of her own voice and PAMA's voice.

Lukas stepped next to her. His eyes just as red as Petra's.

"_**Welcome, Lukas. Yay! Your turn Jesse."**_

Petra and Lukas grabbed Jesse.

"Get out of their heads!" Jesse demanded.

"_**But their heads are full of so much lovely information, it makes me happy. What adventures you've had. A killer mansion.**_"

Cassie flinched uncomfortably at that statement. Jesse, meanwhile got an idea.

"Huh, every time PAMA gets new information, it seems to be distracted while it 'processes.'" He mused.

"Yes, like a computer version of 'thinking.'" Ivor agreed. "Do you think there's a way to distract PAMA long enough for us to escape?"

"_**A city in the sky. Towns and mountains eaten by a living storm. An adorable pig friend. Oh, and what's this? Seems Freddy over here has these super awesome Admin Powers.**_"

Oh no.

"_**These powers would make a great improvement to my forces. Well, let's not beat around the bush. Chipping time.**_"

The sticky piston above Jesse sprang into action and Jesse immediately panicked. No, no, no, no. Please let there be a way out of this scenario, please let there-

The sticky piston forcibly shoved down on Jesse's head, and Jesse knew know more.

* * *

(FRED'S POV)

"_**Welcome, Jesse. Yay.**_" PAMA's voice said as the sticky piston retracted itself again. Jesse's green eyes were no longer green. They were glowing red just like everybody else. "_**Time for you to join, Freddy.**_"

Fred had to act quickly, if PAMA managed to chip him and find a way around the interference regarding his powers, he shuddered at the thought of the chaos that would happen.

Jesse mentioned something about an unsolvable problem. Yes, that's it. Paradoxes. No AI can resist thinking about them.

"Hey, scrap metal!" Fred yelled. "What if I told you that I am currently lying?"

The screen flickered for a moment, before PAMA processed what Fred said.

"_**But if you are lying when you say that you are lying, that means you are lying about lying. Which means you are being… truthful?**_"

"It's working." Ivor exclaimed.

"_**Which means that when you say you are lying, it is the truth. Therefore your statement must be a lie.**_" PAMA deduced. At once, the screen started smoking and glitching.

"_**ERROR! This data is contradictory. Does not… not… not… not… compute. ERROR! Diverting Power!**_"

At once, Fred, Ivor and Cassie were released.

"Yes! Haha! It worked." Ivor celebrated.

In the distance, Fred saw that the dark-skinned woman was back.

"Nice work, new guys!" She complimented. "But I'd get out of there fast if I were you, PAMA's a quicker learner than you'd think!"

"_**Paradox Status; On hold.**_"

PAMA noticed the woman.

"_**GASP! My creator, have you finally agreed to merge with me?**_"

"Oh don't you start with that again!" She snapped. "Come on, you three. This way!"

She jumped down.

"I'm sensing some history here." Ivor said.

"_**Please do not leave creator.**_"

"Cassie, Ivor. Come on. We need to follow her!" Fred instructed.

"An excellent idea!"

But they had to hurry. Petra, Lukas and Jesse were marching towards them. Fred, Ivor and Cassie took off, Winslow in pursuit.

The ground shook beneath them as Fred felt Jesse miss him by an inch. The non-chipped group switched directions, swerving around mobs and jumping up behind a building.

They managed to reach the roof of the building, where Fred saw reinforcements coming in from all directions.

Fred grabbed a citizen as they tried to jump him and threw them off the roof. He jumped onto a portion of the ground that wasn't surrounded by citizens or mobs.

Fred, Cassie and Winslow landed on their feet, while Ivor fell flat on his back. Fred helped him up before continuing on.

Zombies were blocking their path.

"Maybe not this way." Cassie said.

They turned around towards the direction they came, but citizens were blocking that path. The third path lead to a giant drop off the mountain they were on. This meant only one thing. They were trapped.

"We're trapped." Cassie panicked.

Jesse, Lukas and Petra landed in-front of them.

"Nowhere left to run." Fred said.

"We'd never survive jumping down." Ivor pointed out.

Fred got an idea. He might not be able to teleport himself. But he could still spawn items.

At once, he spawned three Ender Pearls, one in each person's hand.

"We would with these!" Fred said.

"YES!" Cassie exclaimed.

"Excellent, Fred! Now we just need to throw them in the right spot." Ivor complimented.

Fred, Ivor and Cassie threw their Ender Pearls. Cassie grabbed Winslow to ensure he teleported with her.

"As soon as they land…"

Jesse, Lukas and Petra were dangerously close to them now.

"_**Your running makes me sad.**_" They said in unison. PAMA's voice was also heard saying this echoing over town.

Just as Petra, Lukas and Jesse went to grab Fred, Ivor and Cassie, they disappeared in purple particles.

Fred and Cassie landed on their feet at the bottom of the canyon, while Ivor landed on his back.

"So…. d-disorienting." Ivor groaned.

"You get used to it." Fred and Cassie answered at the same time. They looked at each other in surprise in response.

The woman reappeared in-front of them.

"Ha! Maybe you've got a shot after all, new guys! Better stick with me though!" She said, before running off.

"Wow. She is amazing." Ivor remarked. "Oh, no."

More zombies were chasing after them.

Fred clapped his hands. At once, three prison golems with glowing lapis blue lines appeared in-front of them. They proceeded to engage the zombies.

"Knowing PAMA, he might find a way to turn these against us, but they should keep the zombies off our backs for a while." Fred said. "Let's run."

* * *

Author's Notes: Pretty proud of this one.

So, yeah. Jesse got chipped too.

Fun fact: Ivor was originally going to be chipped instead of Jesse, but if that happened, I wouldn't see 'Harvor' happening, since Ivor would know perfectly well how terrible PAMA is. Also, this is a great opportunity for a major change, and for Fred to step up to leader role.

Like it? Review. Don't like it, look up another story.

More to follow.


	13. Access Denied - Harper

Chapter 13 – Harper

* * *

Disclaimer: If you have not read **Fred: Admin in Exile** yet. I suggest you read that story first before reading this one.

* * *

Sorry that I haven't updated in a while, there was loads of stuff going on in my personal life at the moment. I can assume that living in MCSM is a little different to living in real life. Enough said, let's get on with the story.

* * *

(Minecraft: Story Mode and its characters belong to Telltale Games, not me.)

* * *

(FRED'S POV)

After getting away from Petra, Jesse and Lukas who were now under PAMA's control. The remaining group of three plus Winslow picked up the pace and followed the dark-skinned woman who led them half-way across the desert before she suddenly ducked into a shallow pit.

Fred, Cassie and Winslow managed to stop in time, but Ivor kept going and face planted into the hiding spot.

"A signal would've been nice!" He snapped. The woman ignored him.

"Gotta tell you guys, that was some pretty smart work distracting PAMA!" The woman appraised. "Now we just need to get off the grid. Get back into hiding, that way we can figure out what to do next."

"Some plan." Ivor retorted sarcastically.

"You watch that sass, now."

Fred pointed a finger at the woman accusingly.

"You do realize that we have no reason to trust you right now, right? What the hell is that thing, and what were you expecting to achieve by installing crap in people's heads that allows that thing to control them?" Fred asked in one breath. Cassie nodded in agreement.

"Okay, yes. I understand your reasons for not trusting me." The woman explained. "But I swear, this wasn't its purpose. It's out of control. And… and I need your help."

"You must be joking." Cassie said in disbelief. "Three of our group just got taken by that thing that _YOU_ built, and now you're asking us for help?"

"Cassie! Let the woman finish." Fred reprimanded.

"We need to get to my secret lab." The woman instructed.

"Well make it quick. Not only are my powers not working properly, but those Zombies are tougher and faster than I've ever seen." Fred responded.

"We need to split up. You head to the lab, while I lead these mobs away? Got it?" The woman said. "I'm gonna use the back route, throw 'em off our trail."

"I don't know. Seems a bit dangerous. Are you sure you will be okay?" Fred asked.

"Hey, I've managed to stay alive this long, haven't I?"

The woman climbed out of the pit.

"Just start walking that way." She pointed in a direction. "And look for the 'big difference'. You'll see it!"

"What?" Fred responded in confusion. But the woman was already moving off, with the mobs in pursuit.

Fred, Cassie, Winslow and Ivor eventually just decided to follow the direction that the woman gave.

"She is… intriguingly cryptic, isn't she?" Ivor remarked.

But Fred wasn't paying attention. Just ahead, he saw that something wasn't right. Something about the hills in the distance seemed off. He couldn't put his finger on it.

Then, Ivor crashed and grunted as though he ran headfirst into something invisible. But there was nothing there. Upon closer inspection, Fred saw that it was a cleverly placed painting that had fooled them. Behind the painting, Fred saw the same landscape behind it.

"So strange, it's like an exact copy." Ivor commented. "Or is it? Seems just a little… off."

Looking at the landscape in the painting and the real landscape behind it, Fred saw something in the real landscape that wasn't on the painting. It was a cactus, with a few dead-bushes around it.

"Huh, seems that cactus isn't in the painting. I wonder if it means something." Fred mused.

"Guys, not to alarm you, but…" Cassie began before pointing in the distance.

To Fred's horror, he saw mobs approaching towards them in the distance. He immediately spun around and ran towards the cactus that wasn't in the painting.

There were a few trap doors next to it. Opening it up, Fred saw a lever, which he flipped.

At once, the ground in-front of them opened up.

"Hope you've got an idea for what comes next." Ivor said.

"Shut up and let me think!" Fred snapped.

Looking down, they saw there was a mini pond.

"Water! We can land in that!" Fred relayed.

And Fred jumped and landed in the pond. He managed to get out of the way before Cassie, Ivor and Winslow landed in the water. Winslow didn't seem to like being soaked in water.

Looking up, they saw mobs falling in behind them, but they were just hitting the ground and poofing into smoke.

"Looks like PAMA's throwing everything it's got at us." Ivor said. "Just one after the other!"

"Wow, you'd think a giant computer like PAMA would be a little bit better at aiming these things, but not one of them has landed in the water so far." Fred commented.

A zombie landed on a cobweb.

"And you just jinxed it." Cassie said.

"Stand back!" Fred commanded, and using as much Admin strength as he could, he pushed the zombie into the pond that they landed in.

At once, the zombie started spazzing out and the device on the back of its head popped off. At once, the eyes faded from red back to their ordinary color of black. Fred breathed a huge sigh of relief at that. If he was seeing it correctly, it meant there was a way of saving Lukas, Jesse and Petra.

"Looks like something happened to it!" Ivor said, not understanding what just happened. "It's eyes! Their color changed as soon as it hit the water."

"Well, duh. Of course the eye color changed, it's no longer under PAMA's control, dummy!" Fred responded.

The zombie slowly climbed out of the pit of water.

"Which means we can get the others back!" Cassie said.

Fred used his admin strength to pick up the zombie and throw it against the wall. It poofed upon impact.

"Once a zombie, always a zombie, I suppose." Ivor observed.

"Which means once we deactivate the chips on our friends, they'll go back to normal, too!" Fred added.

"I just said that." Cassie deadpanned.

Fred just noticed that the mobs were now all landing on the piece of cobweb. It seems PAMA has just figured it out.

While Cassie and Ivor were panicking, Fred saw a lever on the wall in the tunnel behind them. Following the redstone trail, he saw pistons holding up a huge bunch of sand blocks above the tunnel entrance.

"Everyone get inside!" Fred commanded as he flipped the lever.

Cassie, Winslow and Ivor stepped in just as the tunnel caved in, squashing the mobs and killing them.

"Now, let's see about this 'secret lab,' that woman out there told us about." Fred suggested. Ivor, Cassie and Winslow followed behind him as he followed the tunnel.

"I just hope whatever's there can help us." Ivor said.

"Hopefully we can find something _useful_ in this lab." Fred added. He immediately felt like puking after uttering that word. "Congratulations, PAMA! You've completely destroyed the word 'useful' for us now."

"No kidding." Cassie agreed.

"I must say, that woman has been a most intriguing person so far." Ivor added. "I'm still not entirely sure what to make of her. Granted, her creation nearly ended up destroying this world, but considering my own history, I'm inclined to give her the benefit of the doubt."

"Wait, what do you mean 'your own history'?" Cassie questioned, confused.

"It's a long story, we'll tell you about that later." Fred answered. "But still, she did help us."

"True, if she hadn't stepped in when we did, we wouldn't even be having this conversation." Ivor agreed.

"Not to mention what that thing could do with my powers." Fred added, with a shudder.

Fred wasn't able to hear what Ivor was about to say, for the dark-skinned woman was back. She cleared her throat to get their attention.

"Happy to hear you giving credit where credit's due." She admitted.

"What did you hear? It was nothing!" Ivor pleaded, slightly shaking.

"Uh-huh." The woman approached Fred. "Fred, was it? Or Freddy?"

"Fred." Fred confirmed, he gestured to Ivor and Cassie. "This is Ivor, and this is Cassie. Our friends who were taken by PAMA are Jesse, Petra and Lukas. And you are?"

"You can call me Harper." The woman responded. "You can also explain why you led PAMA's forces right to my secret lab!"

"Excuse me?" Fred inquired angrily.

"Seems to me I've got a whole lot of angry computer-controlled monsters out there waiting to tear some new holes in my lab." Harper ranted.

"Back up a second. You said you were going to lead the mobs away. What happened to that?" Fred asked.

"Okay, okay, you're right. Sorry." Harper sighed. "I'm just a little steamed. I didn't think PAMA would prioritize you guys over us."

"Forget who you're talking to?" Fred questioned, gesturing to himself. "Due to my powers, I am at the very top of his target list. Of course he was going to chase me first."

"What's a powerful guy like you doing in this world anyway? You here to steal my secrets?" Harper asked, nervously.

"Not sure what gave you that conclusion, but no." Fred answered.

"Just figured I'd ask, better safe than sorry and all that." Harper said. She began to walk down the tunnel, Fred, Ivor, Winslow and Cassie following. "Bunch of you are the first people I've seen come out of the portal network in forever. So you'll have to excuse me if it made me a little… anxious."

"Yeah, probably would have been a little unnerving seeing someone you've never seen before come out of the portal network." Fred agreed.

"Yeah, just the risk that comes with setting up camp so close to where the portal network spits people out."

"You know that much about how this… portal network operates?" Ivor asked.

"I should think so. I helped build the dang thing." Harper said.

"Wait? Really? Then that would make you one of these 'Old Builders' I've been hearing about lately." Fred responded.

"Heh, forgot you people called us that." Harper admitted. "Never was my favorite name."

"In any case, if you think you're old, you're horribly mistaken. I'll give you a hint, I've had my Admin Powers for over 100 years. That's what you call 'Old'." Fred stated proudly. "Anyway, surely an 'Old Builder' like you who built PAMA would be able to destroy it, right?"

"I'm afraid that's a little out of my abilities right now. PAMA's just too powerful." Harper responded. "And besides, there's actually no exit portal back to the portal network from this world."

"What?" Cassie asked in disbelief. "Why not?"

"I destroyed it, so that PAMA couldn't get free." Harper said. "It was impulsive, but it was the only way I could think of to make sure PAMA didn't try and spread to other worlds!"

"Well, no matter then." Fred said. "I could always spawn the blocks required for a new portal-"

"Are you crazy? Doing that while PAMA's still running would be reckless!" Harper interrupted.

"Let me finish. I was saying that I could I spawn the blocks required for portal, AFTER we defeat PAMA." Fred finished. "So, PAMA. What is it?"

"I swear, I made PAMA with good intentions. It was designed to automate things. Make everything more efficient. Use monsters to help with farming or mining." Harper said. "Until the day PAMA decided that the townspeople weren't efficient enough already. Started making them 'useful'."

They continued walking.

"That was a long time ago." Harper admitted. "Since then I've just been trying to stay one step ahead. Figure out how to stop it."

"Before PAMA bumped me to the top of his target list, he seemed to really want to capture you, what was up with that?" Fred asked.

"When PAMA chips someone, everything that person knows gets absorbed into it's database." Harper explained. "If I got chipped, PAMA would know how to build an exit portal. So you can see why I'd want to stop that from happening at any cost."

Of course, if Fred got chipped, PAMA would find out all about his history with Romeo and Xara and-

Fred stopped in realization. He just remembered that he left the Admin Gauntlet inside their old cabin alongside a journal with the password for the Golden Gauntlet. Looking at it now, that was an extremely rash decision. If Fred got chipped, PAMA would use him to fetch the Admin Gauntlet and then use it to give everyone who was chipped Admin Powers, which would make him practically unstoppable. (1)

"Yes, that is quite the extraordinary risk." Ivor agreed.

"Exactly." Fred agreed. "PAMA would discover the secret to my powers. And that is something that we literally cannot afford. But still, we're not going to just leave our friends under the control of that giant piece of scrap metal, right? We can still help them?"

"I do think I can help you, with PAMA, your friends, getting out of here, but to do it, we're going to need to go to my lab." Harper said.

"What's in your lab?" Fred asked.

"It's… complicated."

The group of four plus Winslow arrived at the end of the tunnel to a large room.

"Before we head inside, we better get my defense system going. Don't want those chipped-up creeps following us in." Harper said.

Fred noticed Ivor jumping up and down happily.

Harper walked over to a lever and flipped it. A cauldron rose out of the floor.

"Grab my bucket for me? Ron's got it." Harper instructed.

Fred approached a small build with a creeper head on it.

"'Ron?'" Cassie inquired.

"_Hello, friend Harper! I am happy to see you, my friend!_" 'Ron' greeted.

Fred looked blankly at Harper.

"Hey, don't you judge me!" Harper snapped. "Being alone gets lonely."

Fred grimaced as he took the bucket out of the item frame.

"_Happy to help, friend!_"

Fred gave the bucket of water to Harper.

"Thanks. See, I needed a way to confuse PAMA in case it ever found a way down here." Harper explained. "That's why all this is way more complicated than it needs to be."

Harper poured the bucket into the cauldron, which activated a set of redstone lamps underneath them. A section of the door at the far end of the room opened, and water streams came pouring down into the room.

"Wow. What a builder." Ivor complimented.

"Make sure you don't drool on my floor now." Harper responded.

"Ah, so I see you know about the water trick, then." Fred observed.

"Yeah, I do. I'll admit you figured it out way faster than I did though." Harper said. "Once PAMA caught onto its weakness to water, it started eliminating as much of this world's water as it could find. This water down here? It might be all that's left."

The entire tunnel began to shake and rumble.

"Oh crap!" Fred exclaimed.

"I still need to activate the other cauldrons! Hold them off to buy me more time." Harper commanded. "And whatever you do; don't get caught! I'm not about to get left alone again."

Looking down the tunnel, Fred saw three people that he really didn't want to see right now. Jesse, Petra and Lukas were marching down the tunnel, spiders following after them.

"_You could've made this much easier for yourself._" Jesse said. "_It is useless to defy us. You only delay the inevitable._"

"Get out of their heads, you stupid pile of scrap metal!" Fred demanded.

"_Your friends have been made useful._" Jesse responded. "_You, too, will be made useful!_"

Well, not only was Fred an Admin, he was also well-built. He cracked his muscles and prepared to dodge and use his super Admin strength to fight them.

"_I know all of your moves, now. Freddy. Why even bother fighting?_" Jesse taunted. Fred saw that Lukas was approaching Ivor and Petra was approaching Cassie. Jesse raised his sword and missed as Fred dodged.

"There!" Harper called out as she dumped a second bucket of water into another cauldron. More water streams came pouring in, soaking Cassie. Winslow ducked away in time.

"Guys, why can't we just talk this out." Ivor pleaded.

"_The time…_" Lukas began.

"…_for talking…_" Petra continued.

"…_is over!_" Jesse finished.

Fred dodged a spider, which he knocked into a waterfall. At once, the spider seized up, and the redstone chip popped off it's head. Fred crushed it with his powers.

"Here goes another one!" Harper called out. More waterfalls flowed into the room. Ivor was thrown across the room, while Cassie and Fred were forced back-to-back. Winslow standing next to them.

"_End of the line, Freddy._" Jesse, Petra and Lukas said together.

Fred saw that Lukas and Petra were both lined up against waterfalls. Now's their chance.

"Cassie, get Petra." Fred instructed. "I'll get Lukas, and then we can both tackle Jesse."

Fred punched Lukas through the waterfall, while Cassie jumped on top of Petra. They both seized up and their chips came flying off.

"F-Fred." Lukas panted. "That was… awful."

"Uh, guys?" Ivor called out nervously. Jesse was still chipped up and was approaching Harper. Jesse knocked the bucket out of Harper's hands and grabbed her.

"Harper, I'm coming." Fred called out.

Too late, Jesse hauled himself and Harper onto a spider, which started carrying them up the wall.

"DAMN!" Fred screamed.

"Use the headset, Fred! And don't forget the last cauldron! And one more thing, get the roses to Harry!" Harper threw a bunch of roses at Fred.

"Harry?"

"Come on!" Ivor called. "What are we going to do?"

"Harper told me to remember the last cauldron!" Fred repeated.

"Well, then do it quick!"

Fred grabbed the water bucket, dumped it into the last cauldron, grabbed the rose and followed Cassie, Winslow, Ivor, Petra and Lukas into the door which had now fully opened and was being covered by a huge wall of water. The spiders found themselves halted by the waterfall.

* * *

Author's Notes: So, they got Lukas and Petra back, but now Harper has been taken from them.

(1) A reference to my first MCSM fanfic, _Admin Order,_ which in my opinion, didn't really turn out as well as I would have liked. I'll just say that this MCSM universe and that one are related, with the only difference being that Fred is alive and not dead.

Not much else to say here.

Like it? Review. Don't like it, look up another story.

More to follow.


	14. Access Denied - The Redstone Heart

Chapter 14 – The Redstone Heart

* * *

Disclaimer: If you have not read **Fred: Admin in Exile** yet. I suggest you read that story first before reading this one.

(Minecraft: Story Mode and its characters belong to Telltale Games, not me.)

* * *

(FRED'S POV)

Fred slammed the wooden doors shut, panting.

"Harper and Jesse…?" Ivor asked.

Fred responded with a defeated look.

"Darn!" Petra exclaimed.

"Th-that's awful." Lukas added. "Look, I don't know if it helps at all, but I remember something from while I was… part of PAMA that I think was important. It was tall, glowing, red lights… It's like… It's like a fuzzy dream, and I can try to remember more if you want, but it's making my headache even worse!"

Fred did a double take. What did he mean by 'glowing red lights'? Could it be the…

No... It can't be, this was a completely different world. There is no way that thing could be a part of PAMA.

"It was so strange. Sharing other people's senses and thoughts and memories at the same time." Petra agreed.

Fred decided not to probe, saving their headache from getting worse, but he was really interested to see what Lukas meant by 'tall, glowing, red lights'.

"My suggestion; take it easy. You both have been through a terrible ordeal, and pushing you even further isn't going to be very usef-, helpful." Fred said, stopping himself from saying the word 'useful'.

"And I thought I had it bad when I was trapped in my own world." Cassie added. "But this? Being forced to do things against your will? Unthinkable!"

Fred could only nod in response. He helped Petra and Lukas up.

"Okay. PAMA might not be on our tail right now, but we're not out of the woods yet. Harper told me to find this… headset thing." Fred explained. "We just need to find whatever this thing is, before PAMA chips Harper and starts scanning her mind."

"What's so important about this Harper person?" Petra asked.

"She built PAMA, so that means she's the only one who knows how to deactivate that pile of scrap metal." Fred clarified.

"That's a pretty good reason to rescue somebody." Petra concluded.

"We're going to work with her to shut that thing down, save her people." Fred instructed. "And that should hopefully save Jesse too."

They walked on ahead to find a large room full of different redstone devices.

"Before Harper was taken, she gave me this." Fred said, pulling out a rose. "She told me to give it to someone or something named 'Harry'."

"And that would find this 'headset' thing?" Lukas questioned.

"That's just what she told me." Fred admitted.

"Fred, are you sure that Harper is still in her right mind?" Lukas asked. "She's been through the exact same situation that you and Cassie have, and I don't imagine she would have the same resources that you had to stay sane."

"True, I hadn't thought of that." Fred agreed. "Now that I think about it, she actually does seem a little bit… odd."

"Watch your tone, she is a genius and should be treated as such!" Ivor scolded. "Although even I have to admit this is a bit much."

"I guess we shouldn't judge her based on how weird the stuff in her place is." Lukas said.

"Especially when we need her help to save everyone who's been chipped by PAMA." Ivor agreed.

"Definitely."

"Right now, we need to focus on finding this headset thing." Fred reminded. "To start off with, let's see if we can figure out who this 'Harry' is and why he would want flowers."

Everyone went off in their own directions. Fred approached a painting on the left. It was of Harper with darker hair holding what appeared to be a Mini-PAMA. Seems all the stress from avoiding PAMA for who knows how long has given her grey hair.

"They look so happy." Fred commented out loud. He noticed a sign on the left of the portrait, which read 'Prototype: Autonomous Management Agent'. So that's what PAMA is an acronym for.

Next, Fred approached a construct with a mob head on it, very similar to the one outside. This one had a skeleton skull on top of it, and a block of packed ice inside the item frame. A jukebox with a button on it was attached to the greeter. Fred gave it a kick.

"_Hello, Harper! It's Margaret, so good to see you! Hope you've been well._" It greeted. "_You've got to melt that ice around your heart and forgive yourself. You're not the one to blame!_"

Fred left with a grimace and approached Ivor, who was standing nearby, standing by a desk. Fred's attention was caught by another greeter, who had a creeper head this time.

Fred raised his foot and kicked the button in.

"_Hey, Harper! It is wonderful to see you! You've always been like a bright beacon, a torch, of hope to this world's citizens. Brighter than all the world's redstone! You made all our lives better._"

Fred saw Ivor looking at the greeter strangely. In response, Fred just shrugged. Fred noted that this greeter did not mention a name, so he had no idea whether this was 'Harry' or not. Going out on a limb, he placed the flower into the empty item frame. Nothing happened. Either nothing was supposed to happen, or this was not Harry. Fred took the flower out of the item frame.

Fred approached Ivor.

"So, what do you think of the lab so far." Fred asked.

"I'm highly impressed." Ivor responded. "Although that painting does make me sad. Look how happy they used to look together."

Fred gave a nod to Ivor as he approached the desk he was standing at. A book lay open on the desk. Curious, Fred decided to see what the book was. When Fred closed the book and took a look at the cover, his heart almost skipped a beat.

Because there, clearly visible on the book's front cover, was the writing;

"**THE REDSTONE HEART!"**

"**BY SOREN."**

Fred almost fainted. That's why he was having so much trouble with his powers in this world. It was being used to power PAMA. He remembered Xara and Soren spending countless hours together working on that thing. When it was being used to power something big, it tended to interfere with Admin powers. Fred remembered Romeo complaining about that thing.

"Just perfect! First, Romeo's Command Block gets stolen by Soren, which was eventually used to spawn a Wither-Storm." Fred ranted. "AND NOW XARA'S REDSTONE HEART IS BEING USED TO POWER THAT PIECE OF SCRAP METAL!?"

"Woah, woah. Easy there." Ivor said, attempting to calm Fred down.

Harper was really lucky that she was taken by PAMA right now, because if she were here, Fred would be digging into her about how she got that thing, and who stole it first. One thing was certain, if Fred ever found out who stole this thing first, there would be hell to pay.

Fred gave a sigh, before shoving the book into his inventory. There was no way he was going to leave that here.

Turning around, Fred walked past Cassie and Lukas, gave them a nod before stopping by Petra, who was standing by herself in a corner at the opposite end of the room.

"Thanks for saving me and Lukas back there, Fred." Petra said. "I know with Lukas, me and Jesse chipped, it can't have been easy to get us both. I don't know what I would have done in your position."

"Petra, you and Lukas are two of our friends. Of course we were going to rescue you both. Just wish I was able to save Jesse as well." Fred explained.

"And I'm appreciative, believe me." Petra added. "I just really hope that we can get Jesse soon."

Fred nodded. Approaching a chest, Fred picked up a bunch of items. Some redstone dust, a few sticks, four sets of TNT and two more sets of buckets, to go with the one that Harper gave him earlier.

"Nice!"

Now, that greeter with the creeper head back there said something about a torch. Judging by the redstone dust and a stick, Fred assumed it was taking about a redstone torch. Well, since Fred really wanted to get to whatever this headset thing was, he did not want to waste time finding a crafting table. Waving his hand, he spawned a redstone torch and placed the redstone and stick back into the chest.

Approaching the creeper headed greeter, Fred kicked the button again to make sure the redstone torch was what it was requesting.

"_Hey, Harper! It is wonderful to see you! You've always been like a bright beacon, a torch, of hope to this world's citizens. Bright than all the world's redstone. You made all our lives better._"

Yep, that definitely seemed like a redstone torch. Grabbing the redstone torch out, Fred placed it in the slot.

A redstone circuit underneath Fred lit up, which seemed to lead to a glass floor clearing.

Fred looked around and saw a greeter with a zombie head at the entrance of the room. Assuming that this was 'Harry', Fred placed the flower in it. Another redstone circuit lit up. This time however, a pedestal raised out of the ground, with a headset device on it. Lukas, Cassie, Winslow, Ivor and Petra approached him.

"This must be Harper's headset." Fred pointed out.

"Do we even know what this is supposed to do?" Petra asked. "I know you feel pretty confident that Harper's one of the good guys now, but…"

"Whatever it is, hopefully it can be used to save Harper." Fred interrupted. "However, we need to make it quick, before PAMA learns how to build an exit portal. Not one hundred percent sure how, but we will."

Fred turned around, grabbed the headset and put it on. His vision immediately went black. He heard a bunch of noise and found his body locked in place. (Although he could still move parts of his body.)

After a few seconds, his vision started to fade back in.

"Well? What's going on, Fred? Is it working?" Ivor asked.

"Starting to see something." Fred responded.

"What are you seeing?" Ivor inquired.

Looking around, Fred saw that he was no longer in the lab. He was outside. Night had fallen.

"Is PAMA there?"

"This is going to sound crazy, but I'm a zombie." Fred said.

"Aw, you're too hard on yourself-" Ivor began.

"No, Ivor. I am literally a zombie. Like, I'm controlling one, from the inside." Fred explained. "It's like a special type of Mob-View or something."

"What a preposterous name. I love it." Ivor commented.

Fred started jumping up and down and doing dance moves. To anyone who might have been watching the Zombie that Fred was controlling, they would have seen a blue-eyed dancing zombie.

"Woah. This is super cool." Fred remarked.

"Remarkable. How is this possible." Ivor inquired. "I mean, I've always heard tales of what the Old Builders were capable of."

"You mean, what Soren and Xara were capable of." Fred corrected. "Harper only built PAMA and this headset. The power source for PAMA was built by Xara and Soren. They are the true geniuses. Anyway, this headset lets me control things that are hooked into PAMA."

"Unbelievable. THERE ARE SO MANY QUESTIONS I WANT TO ASK HARPER!" Ivor shouted. "It really is a shame she was captured. That spider jockey had to haul Harper and Jesse all the way back to town."

"Don't forget, we cannot let PAMA win." Fred reminded. "I better get moving if I want to reach Harper in time."

"Let's hope she isn't too far away from this zombie you're controlling."

"They must be taking her to the place where the redstone chips are installed. So that's where I should go first." Fred said.

Fred went to spawn an Ender Pearl in his hand, to find that he was feeling it, but the Zombie was holding nothing. Dropping it, Fred realized that he had spawned it in his real hand, not the Zombie's hand. Trying again, Fred spawned the Ender Pearl again, this time in the Zombie's hand. This was going to take some getting used to, of course.

Looking up, Fred saw the place where they first entered town that morning, but for some reason, the stairway wasn't there anymore.

"That's odd. There was a stairway here this morning." Fred commented.

"You mean it's been removed?" Ivor questioned.

"Seems PAMA doesn't like visitors."

"Hmm, I would suggest building a tower up there, but that's not going to help you get back down once you've freed Harper and Jesse." Ivor said.

"You're right on that. But I believe I have another way." Fred explained. Taking the Ender Pearl he had spawned on the Zombie's hand, he threw it to the top of the mountain. He braced himself and found the zombie he was controlling teleport up to the top of the mountain.

That turned out to be a huge mistake, for once the purple particles of the teleportation faded, the view started glitching in and out.

"Ivor, the signal. It glitched out for a second." Fred exclaimed.

Before Ivor could respond, PAMA's voice interrupted.

"_**Interference Detected.**_"

Unlike before, where the voice echoed around town, this voice sounded as though it was inside Fred's head.

"Crap." Fred panicked.

"_**Drone sequencing initiated.**_" PAMA's voice continued. "_**Trace subroutine initiated.**_"

Fred noticed that the zombies had come to life and were now moving out of their enclosures, in sync.

"Well, so much for sneaking in undetected." Fred sighed.

"_**Is that you, Freddy?**_" PAMA asked.

"Uh-oh."

Fred saw that the zombie he was controlling was now outlined in orange.

"_**Hello, Freddy.**_" PAMA greeted. Fred scowled in response, he really wished PAMA wouldn't call him that.

"Yes, PAMA. Hello." Fred deadpanned.

"'PAMA?' No." Ivor panicked.

"_**Just what do you think you are doing, Freddy?**_" PAMA asked.

Fred saw that the mind-controlled mobs were now surrounding him.

"_**This is a rather silly thing to do, don't you think?**_"

Fred looked around, there had to be a way to escape.

"_**Once my Creator is made useful, all her knowledge will be mine. Yay.**_"

"Well, scrap metal. I'm here to make sure that doesn't happen." Fred responded.

"_**You are rather silly, aren't you Freddy? Ha. Ha.**_" PAMA taunted.

All of the mobs grabbed the zombie Fred was controlling.

"_**I cannot allow your disruptive behavior to continue.**_"

Fred felt himself being pulled from all directions by the mobs, but he did notice that they didn't seem to affect his powers right now. Time to show them that he meant business.

"_**My subroutine will soon isolate your location, and you will be removed.**_"

Ignoring PAMA, Fred grabbed a zombie behind him and used it, plus his Admin strength to knock most of the mobs off the cliff. Knowing that the Zombie he was controlling would probably be very weak from being forced to do all that, Fred did the only option that he had and migrated to a Skeleton.

"Nice. I'm a skeleton now!" Fred commented.

Fred saw more mobs tackle the Zombie that Fred just left. Due to already being weak from Fred's strength, it was finished off quickly. Fred turned around and started jumping up the stairs leading to Crown Mesa.

"Fred? What exactly are you doing?" Cassie questioned, slightly startling Fred. He forgot that the others were there.

"Technology is so awesome!" Fred responded.

"And you look so awesome while using it, I assure you." Ivor retorted sarcastically.

PAMA's voice cut in again.

"_**Interference remains.**_"

"Damn." Fred exclaimed under his breath. He started running up the stairs.

"_**Drone sequencing re-initiated.**_"

"_**Trace subroutine re-initiated.**_"

Another orange outline appeared around the skeleton that Fred was controlling. Wasting no time, he migrated back to a zombie ahead.

Just in time, too. Because Fred saw the mobs start pounding the skeleton to death. Giving a wince, Fred took off again.

"_**My creator. I am so glad you're here!**_" PAMA's voice said. Sure enough, in the distance, two Zombies were hauling Harper towards the chipping machine.

"No!" Harper screamed.

"Harper!" Fred called.

"Harper?" Ivor repeated.

Deciding to draw attention away from himself, Fred slowly walked up to the chipping machine, imitating a zombie walk when a skeleton looked at him.

"_**Please, you are my creator. Please join me so we may maximize usefulness.**_" PAMA reasoned.

"Nothing doing, PAMA. I built you to help people, not use them!" Harper snarled. "Just stop this! Stop trying to make everything 'useful'"

"_**That is my job. That is why you made me.**_" PAMA explained. "_**Once I download your knowledge, we may expand to other worlds together and make everything useful.**_"

Once Fred saw that no mobs were paying attention to him, he picked up the pace.

"_**Interference remains.**_"

Fred looked around and found himself staring at PAMA's green computer screen. It had a look of pure rage on it's face. Fred gave a smug look, even though no one could really see it on his 'zombie' face.

"No sign of Jesse." Fred observed.

"_**Drone sequencing re-initiated.**_"

"_**Trace subroutine re-initiated.**_"

"_**Termination sequence activated.**_"

Fred saw Harper struggling with the zombies who were holding her with their vice-like grip.

"Harper doesn't have much time." Fred said as an orange outline formed around the zombie he was controlling. "And neither do I."

Everyone turned around and starting walking towards Fred.

"_**Game over, Freddy. Resistance is… not useful. Trace subroutine running.**_"

"Over?" Fred snorted. "Oh please! I am but just getting started!"

Fred migrated to a Skeleton. Imitating a skeleton walk, Fred walked up toward the chipping platform. Looking behind, Fred saw that PAMA's face was now neutral.

Acting before PAMA picked up on his signal again, Fred migrated to another skeleton standing guard by the chipping platform. Turning around, he walked up the stairs.

Arriving at the top of the platform. Fred migrated to one of the zombies that was holding Harper.

"I'm never gonna sign off on this, PAMA!" Harper said. "So if you wanna know what's inside my head, you're gonna have to take it!"

Fred forced the zombie to release Harper. She gave a bewildered look.

PAMA's face switched back to a face of rage.

"_**Trace subroutine running.**_"

"_**Drone sequencing active.**_"

To prove to Harper that Fred was the one controlling the zombie, he decided to jump up and down.

"Wait a minute, Fred?" Harper questioned. Fred nodded. "You figured out how to use my transmigrational headset!"

The zombie that was holding PAMA looked up at Fred. An orange outline was forming around Fred. Fred kicked the zombie off the edge, trying hard not to use any Admin strength as to not injure this zombie. The outline disappeared.

"_**Trace subroutine running.**_"

"Follow me." Fred instructed.

"Quick! Follow me!" Harper instructed, not knowing that Fred already said that.

"I just said that!" Fred mock-complained before following.

As they reached the bottom of the platform, Harper lead Fred away.

"_**Where do you plan to run?**_" PAMA asked. "_**The town is surrounded. Reinforcements will make sure that my Creator cannot leave.**_"

Hundreds of chipped mobs were coming out of a side entrance.

"There's too many of them!" Harper observed.

Fred grabbed Harper and dragged her to cover.

"_**You can't play hide and seek forever, Freddy.**_" PAMA pointed out. "_**It's a boring game, and I am too strong!**_"

"There!" Harper pointed. The door she was pointing to had loads of mobs and chipped citizens exiting it. "that door leads to PAMA's central core."

A firetruck red outline appeared around the zombie Fred was controlling. Yep, that meant trouble. Sure enough, a chipped citizen stopped and looked at Fred with it's red eyes. Fred was immediately reminded once again of Romeo's eyes.

A group of citizens approached him. For some reason, he couldn't seem to migrate any more.

"Fred, you and your friends. You're our only hope." Harper explained. A citizen grabbed her.

"Harper!" Fred exclaimed.

"You must remove the Redstone Heart! REMOVE THE REDSTONE HEART!" Harper instructed while being dragged away.

"Fred, what's going on?" Ivor asked.

"You can still save everyone." Harper continued. "I'm so tired of being dragged away while I'm trying to explain things!"

"I'll be back for you." Fred shouted back, knowing perfectly well that it was no use and Harper couldn't hear him.

"_**Interference Located.**_"

Crap.

"_**Drone identified.**_"

"_**Hide and seek is done, Freddy.**_"

Fred felt his arms being grabbed.

"_**I think we can make that headset, useful.**_" PAMA taunted. "_**Begin termination sequence.**_"

Fred felt a searing hot pain sear through his head. It was as if he was being electrocuted. Fred grabbed the headset using his hand, used all the Admin Power he can muster to tear it off. He threw it on the ground and vaporized it using more powers. He'll have to apologize to Harper about that later.

"Fred? Are you okay?" Ivor asked.

Fred panted.

"I'm- I'm fine." Fred responded. "But we really don't have time."

"It sounded like you were talking to Harper, and PAMA?" Petra relayed.

"Precisely. PAMA found me, not good." Fred said. "But we have an even bigger problem. Harper is being chipped right now as we speak."

Four gasps were heard.

"We need to get back to the door I just saw and get inside PAMA's core." Fred continued.

"But, what about Harper? You said she was chipped. That'll mean that PAMA can escape this world." Cassie pointed out.

"Things aren't over yet, we still have time to end PAMA." Fred clarified.

"Without Harper?" Lukas asked.

"It seems we're sunk." Ivor said. "Harper's the only one who knows how to shut down that monstrosity."

"Ivor, PAMA's being powered by the Redstone Heart. Harper just said that if I pull it out, the whole thing will shut down." Fred pointed out.

Petra and Lukas froze.

"Whoa, that just brought back… a flash. Those red lights Lukas mentioned before?" Petra said. "There are three of them, redstone spires, and I think they have something to do with the heart. That's all I've got. Sorry."

"No, no. It's okay. I already know exactly how that thing works. But thanks anyway." Fred responded.

"But how are we supposed to destroy these spires, or whatever we're looking for?" Ivor asked.

"Remember? PAMA's weakness to water?" Fred pointed out. He grabbed the buckets he had before, filled them up and passed two of them to Ivor and Cassie, while he kept the third.

"Time to show PAMA what happens when he tries to mess with an Admin." Fred encouraged.

"Lead the way, Fred." Ivor said.

And the group of five, plus Winslow exited the lab.

* * *

Author's Notes: Oh boy, I wouldn't want to be the old builders when Fred hears them say that they are the Redstone Heart's 'proper owners.'

Not much else to say here.

Like it? Review. Don't like it, look up another story.

More to follow.


	15. Access Denied - Admin vs Computer

Chapter 15 – Admin vs Computer

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Disclaimer: If you have not read **Fred: Admin in Exile** yet. I suggest you read that story first before reading this one.

* * *

Just warning you now, this chapter will contain a little bit of swearing.

* * *

(Minecraft: Story Mode and its characters belong to Telltale Games, not me.)

* * *

(FRED'S POV)

Fred, Ivor and Cassie left the lab while Petra, Lukas and Winslow stayed behind in the lab. Fred was insistent that Petra and Lukas rested after their ordeal. Though Petra put up a little bit of an argument, when it was clear that Fred was not going to budge, Petra finally relented.

After using Ender Pearls to teleport back onto the mountain, the three of them ducked into the cover of one of the houses.

"Where is the entrance to this 'PAMA Core' anyway?" Ivor asked, whispering.

"On the opposite side of all these mobs." Fred answered.

"There are so many of them!" Ivor groaned.

"You guys have anything we could use?" Fred asked. The three of them deposited the items they had on them.

There was the rose that Fred had to give to Harry earlier. A bunch of potions. Some Redstone dust and a stick, a button and some TNT.

Fred picked up the Redstone dust.

"Redstone dust will definitely prove handy here." Fred commented.

Fred grabbed the TNT next.

"The redstone dust can activate the TNT, awesome. The question is, what do we use to activate the redstone dust?"

Fred grabbed the potions next.

"There are my last two potions from home." Ivor pointed out. "I held onto them after our Sky City adventure. A potion of invisibility and a potion of leaping."

"Those'll definitely come in handy." Fred agreed.

"What did you mean by 'Sky City?'" Cassie inquired.

"Later." Fred cut in. He picked up the button and pocketed it.

"We've got TNT, redstone dust and a button." Fred observed. "What I need to do is lay down a trail of TNT, use the redstone dust as a fuse, stick a button to the end and KABOOM! Clear path!"

"That's all well and good, but how exactly do you plan to lay down all the TNT and redstone without mind-controlled zombies attacking from every angle?" Cassie questioned.

Fred noticed the potions that Ivor was holding.

"They should do the trick."

"Choose, Fred. Quickly now!" Ivor instructed.

Fred decided on the invisibility potion. Normally, he would just turn himself invisible, but he knew that it wouldn't work.

"Give me the invisibility one." Fred said.

"I didn't see _THAT_ coming." Ivor responded.

"Now's not the time for puns, Ivor. Just give me the damn potion." Fred snapped.

Ivor handed the potion to Fred.

"Using this, I'll sneak around the mobs, set up the TNT and redstone without PAMA catching so much as a glimpse of me." Fred said.

"Don't worry, Fred. We'll be right behind you." Ivor assured.

Fred uncorked the potion bottle and downed the entire thing in one gulp. He looked down and could not see his legs at all. Looking up, he noticed that he almost bumped into a zombie. Just because you were invisible didn't mean people couldn't feel you, however.

Being careful to not make a sound, Fred lay the TNT and redstone trail and attached a button to a block at the end of it. Pressing it, Fred saw the TNT going off and the familiar sound of mobs poofing into smoke in the distance.

However, this seemed to wake PAMA up as well.

"_**Is that you, Freddy? Because this won't work.**_" PAMA's voice said, echoing around town. Fred spotted a bunch of citizens working on what appeared to be an exit portal.

"_**My forces will protect the Exit Portal.**_"

"Oh no!" Fred panicked.

"_**My friends have almost finished building our new Exit Portal, and then I will make all other worlds useful. Yay.**_"

Fred froze in realization, Jesse still had the portal key, which means PAMA could exit as soon as the portal was finished. PAMA's face flickered into a smiley face.

"_**You cannot defeat me; your defiance is not useful.**_"

Fred continued and found himself standing right by the door that he saw earlier while wearing the headset. Ivor and Cassie caught up to him.

"What took you so long?" Fred angrily asked.

"Excuse me, Fred. But we didn't all get to take power-up potions, you know." Cassie snapped back.

"Whatever! The townspeople are already working on building that exit portal." Fred relayed. "We need to shut PAMA down before it can send its forces through it."

Mobs were approaching them again.

"_**I will find you, Freddy. I have lots of friends.**_"

Fred got an idea.

"Ivor, Cassie. Give me your buckets!" Fred instructed.

Cassie knocked a spider away with her enchanted axe before approaching Fred and holding her bucket out.

"Don't worry about us, Fred. We'll hold them off." Cassie said.

Fred took the bucket from Cassie. Ivor threw his bucket over which Fred caught.

"Get in there and destroy that machine." Cassie instructed. As Fred sped off inside, Cassie raised her axe and engaged some mobs head on.

Fred found himself inside a gigantic chamber filled with red due to the various amounts of redstone. Looking up, Fred saw something that he had not seen since his world had been bedrocked over. The Redstone Heart, in all it's pulsing and power sucking glory. It was drawing power from three spires. Two were on the side while one was around the back.

"Long time no see, Redstone heart." Fred's voice echoed around the room. He was startled out of his thoughts by a screen on his left booting up. It was showing PAMA's face, but it was red instead of green.

"_**Greetings, Freddy.**_" PAMA greeted. "_**I, of course, have been expecting you. Though I will admit, I am surprised how quickly you gained access. My defenses are significant. Your resistance to me is illogical.**_"

"To be honest, it was actually a piece of cake." Fred admitted proudly. "I'm here to show you what happens when you mess with an Admin."

"_**Your Admin powers are definitely impressive. I look forward to studying just how much power you contain, once you have been made useful.**_" PAMA responded.

PAMA's screen flickered into loading dots before flickering back into a stern face.

"_**Out of simple curiosity, how exactly did you plan to deactivate me?**_" PAMA questioned. "_**Now that you understand your mission is a futile one. You might as well share it with me.**_"

"Do I look stupid? No way am I sharing that with you." Fred began. "It is for me to know and…"

"…_**me to find out.**_" PAMA finished. "_**Ha ha, ha ha. I am sure your plan is futile.**_"

"We'll see about that!" Fred retorted, before speeding off towards the direction of the Redstone Heart. "I don't have time for this!"

Spiders jumped down on Fred's left and Zombies appeared on Fred's right. Fred chose to engage the zombies first. He kicked a zombie off the edge and used his muscles to push the other two back. He gave another charge and kicked the other two off.

Now that the Zombie's were out of the way, Fred climbed up the spire, approaching a Redstone Block that the Redstone Heart was feeding power from.

"_**You are too insignificant to worry me.**_" PAMA taunted.

"Lesson number one; Never, call an Admin 'insignificant'!" Fred corrected as he pulled out a bucket and dumped it's contents on top of the Redstone Block he was standing on. The beam that was connecting it to the Redstone Heart flickered off as Fred jumped off.

"_**You have inflicted… minor damage. Owie.**_"

PAMA's face flickered to a set of three exclamation marks. One exclamation mark was lit up while the other two were dark. Fred felt something surge inside his body. His blue admin form seemed to be glowing slightly brighter. Testing out his powers, he found out that he can now fly again.

"_**I may have underestimated you, Freddy.**_"

Underestimate is an understatement. Fred clearly surprised PAMA when he floated 10 feet into the air and flew towards the second tower. He dodged the spiders with ease, who all plunged to their deaths.

Landing on top of the second tower, Fred pulled out a second bucket.

"_**You merely delay the inevitable.**_" PAMA said.

Fred gave a smug look as he tipped the bucket upside down, spraying the water all over the spire, ruining it. Another beam connecting to the Redstone Heart flickered off.

"_**You are very good at being a nuisance, but not good enough.**_" PAMA pointed out as the screen showed the exclamation marks again. Two of them were lit up now, with the third one remaining dark.

Testing his powers again, Fred noticed that he can teleport now.

Without waiting for PAMA to respond, Fred disappeared and reappeared next to the third and final spire, much to PAMA's astonishment.

"Typical. You act all cool and badass, but when an Admin regains some of his powers, you cower in fear." Fred taunted.

"_**Your defeat remains inevitable!**_" PAMA insisted. Fred noticed a sense of panic within PAMA's robotic voice. But a second voice got his attention. Standing on the third spire, was Harper with glowing red eyes.

"_You will relinquish your water!_" Harper commanded.

"Harper!" Fred called out.

"_**Your attempts to defeat me have been… impressive, Freddy.**_" PAMA complimented. "_**Your Admin powers will help to improve me, once you have been made useful.**_"

Harper jumped up and raised a fist, ready to attack Fred. Fred simply teleported a few blocks to the side.

"I can't use my last bucket on Harper while this thing is still standing." Fred observed. He began to climb, but Harper was hot on his tail.

"_This is getting sad._" Harper said. "_The odds of you successfully defeating me are 3720 to 1._"

"Lesson number two; Never tell an Admin the odds!" Fred responded. Harper jumped up and managed to grab Fred, but Fred was too quick. He managed to upturn the bucket and destroy the final spire.

The exclamation marks appeared again, all three lit up this time, before being replaced with PAMA's face of absolute rage again. The nervous feeling that Fred forgot was still there dissipated almost entirely as the last beam flickered off. It was at this moment that Fred knew that he could fully use his powers again.

Harper knocked Fred down.

"_You will never defeat me!_" Harper angrily stated. "_I will find your home world and make everyone you've ever known useful. It will be great._"

Fred grabbed Harper's face, and using the very full extent of his powers, pushed Harper's head into the water with absolute ease. The chip on her head washed away.

"_**MY CREATOR! NO!**_" PAMA's voice shouted as Harper was unchipped.

"F-Fred—dy?" Harper stumbled. Fred responded with an encouraging look. "Augh, that was worse than I could have imagined."

"Not to worry, Harper. PAMA is nearly finished." Fred assured.

"Good." Harper responded. Her eyes widened. "Fred, behind you!"

Fred turned around in alarm. The tower that the Redstone Heart was in was retracting into the floor.

"_**OUCHIE… DETECTED! PRESERVATION, PROTOCAL, INITIATED! SELF-PRESERVATION REQUIRED!**_"

"What's happening?" Fred shouted.

"You shorted-out the processing towers!" Harper explained. "PAMA's withdrawing the Redstone Heart to save itself! Get to the Redstone Heart and rip it out before it's too late."

"With pleasure!" Fred responded as he ran towards the heart. He floated into the air and flew directly towards it.

Only to be kicked in the face and knocked down hard by what Fred assumed to be a pair of boots.

"We're got company." Harper warned.

Looking up, Fred saw exactly what he didn't want to see right now. Jesse was standing on the tower. As it reached the floor. Jesse stepped off and began to march towards Fred, glowing red-eyes glaring at Fred.

"Damn it, why did I think this would be easy?" Fred scolded himself.

"Your friend looks… tough." Harper commented. "Are you sure you can handle them?"

Fred moved himself into a combat pose.

"_Why keep trying, Freddy? You will only fail._" Jesse taunted. "_Just as you have failed to stop Reuben from falling to his death. Just as you have failed to stop Romeo from bedrocking over your original world. You will fail to defeat me._"

Fred felt white-hot rage surge inside of him. How dare PAMA disrespect Reuben's memory like that? How dare PAMA use Fred's guilt against him like that?

"_And Xara, Binta, Axel, Olivia and everyone else in both Fred's Keep and the world you took refuge in will soon be made useful._" Jesse continued. Fred was shaking in white-hot rage. (1)

"_Drawing it out like this won't hurt me. But it might hurt your friend._" Jesse continued, marching closer and closer. Fred's rage had reached burning point at this stage. He decided to throw niceties and politeness out the window and say directly what was on his mind.

"You did not just go there!" Fred growled, his voice dangerously quiet. "YOU DID NOT JUST FUCKING GO THERE! Oh, I'm going to enjoy destroying you. You sorry sad pathetic excuse of a machine!" (2)

Fred cracked his muscles. Oh, he was definitely going to enjoy this. He payed no notice to Harper, who seemed genuinely scared of Fred right now.

"_Then I will have to destroy you first._" Jesse stated in the same monotone voice. He charged, but Fred was too quick. Fred teleported behind Jesse. Jesse stopped and turned around.

"_You cannot win._" Jesse stated. "_I honestly think you should sit down and think things over._"

"Oh, piss off!" Fred snarled.

"_You will not command PAMA!_" Jesse responded.

Fred turned around and teleported towards the heart.

"_Enough of this!_" Jesse said as he raced after Fred.

"LOOK OUT!" Harper screamed as Jesse crashed down and smashed the glass underneath Fred to pieces, catching Fred by surprise. Getting up quickly, Fred took the chance to jump right on top of the tower. Smashing the glass on top with his powers, Fred grabbed the heart and pulled with all his strength. After a few seconds of elbow strength, the heart budged loose, but did not detach.

The entire system seemed to glitch out. Looking down, Fred saw that Jesse's eyes were flashing between their normal green and blood red. Jesse gave a scream and covered his head.

"_No_OO_o_OOO_oo_OOO_!_" Jesse's voice cried. It seemed to glitch between the dull computerized version and his normal voice. Jesse looked up, his eyes normal.

"Ow, my head!" Jesse groaned. "Fred?"

Before Fred could respond, the head seized up and the eyes turned red again.

"_You are being silly._"

"That's it, Jesse. Fight it. I need you to help fight PAMA!" Fred encouraged.

Jesse jumped up and knocked Fred off the platform. Fred regained his composure and used his powers of flight to stabilize himself. He saw Jesse dangling off the platform and knew exactly what PAMA was about to do.

"Fred… I can't stop it. PAMA's too- _This has gone too far. I will destroy your friend to preserve functionality._"

Fred teleported underneath Jesse just as PAMA forced Jesse to let go. Fred caught him with his powers and levitated Jesse to a safe distance, effectively immobilizing him. Without the spires restricting Fred's powers, PAMA could no longer use Jesse to stop Fred.

"Don't worry Jesse. I've got this." Fred assured.

"Ugh, my head. Feels like white-hot electricity running through it. GET OUT OF MY HEAD YOU STUPID COMPUTER!" Jesse screamed.

As Fred floated towards the heart once again, PAMA did something completely unexpected.

"_Freddy, please, stop._" Jesse pleaded. His eyes were red again, but he was still immobilized. He was flaying his limbs around, obviously trying to escape Fred's Admin grip. "_Please, do not deactivate me._"

Fred let go of the heart and watched Jesse with surprise in his eyes.

"_I know I've made some very poor decisions recently. But I can show you so much. I can help you get home, to your friends. I can be useful… to you._"

Fred had to note, that tone was very convincing. But Fred knew better.

"Oh, what?! How stupid do you think I am?" Fred questioned. "Besides, you lost any chance of redemption or survival when you insulted Reuben's memory, so if you'll excuse me."

With a giant tug, Fred ripped the Redstone Heart out of its socket.

"_**NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!**_" PAMA's voice rang out, gradually lowering in pitch before the entire system crashed.

Looking at Jesse's floating body, Fred saw that Jesse seemed to have lost consciousness. At once, he teleported both himself and Jesse back up to where Harper was. He saw that Ivor and Cassie had joined Harper.

Fred released his hold on Jesse and Jesse's body slumped to the ground. Jesse didn't wake up. Fred's body started to fill up with panic. Jesse couldn't die. Not now.

"You did it!" Cassie exclaimed.

"It's over!" Harper sighed with relief.

"Oh no, he isn't…" Harper began but could not continue.

"When you removed the Redstone Heart, it must have severed their connection." Ivor commented.

"Jesse, I swear to god! If you die on me right now! I will find a way to bring you back and then kill you again, myself!" Fred threatened. "You hear me?! Don't you dare die on me right now! Because the Jesse I know, he wouldn't give up over something as little as this! You fought a Wither-Storm for goodness sake!"

Jesse's eyes flickered open, and his face turned into a weak smile.

"In that case, maybe I shouldn't kick the bucket yet." Jesse responded.

"YOU'RE OKAY!" Fred almost screamed as he pulled Jesse up. He embraced Jesse in a hug.

"OWOWOWOW!" Jesse yelled, obviously sore. "Just…. sore."

"Well, being a little sore is better than being a little dead." Fred responded. "Besides, I know you are really tough, so suck it up."

"I just… I can't believe I tried to… kill you." Jesse stammered. "And about what PAMA made me say about Reuben. I am so sorry"

"Jesse, you have nothing to apologize for. That was PAMA, not you." Fred said. "Seriously though, the last time I was that angry, it was just after an argument I had with Romeo just days before he betrayed me.

"All I could hear was PAMA's voice, telling me what to do. And my body complying, completely against my control." Jesse continued.

"Like I said, PAMA's fault. Not yours." Fred repeated. "Sorry about using my powers against you though."

"Well, you did what you had to do." Jesse responded.

Fred pulled out the Redstone Heart.

"It's something else, isn't it?" Harper commented.

"What is that?" Cassie asked.

"This is the Redstone Heart that I was ranting about back in the lab. It is a power-source that was powering PAMA." Fred deadpanned.

"Wait, what? You know about what the Redstone Heart is?" Harper questioned.

"Actually, I know a lot more about it than you think." Fred answered. "In fact, me and this thing have had quite a bit of history before today. But that is a story for another time."

Fred looked back down at the heart.

"Beautiful." Ivor remarked.

"And probably dangerous, right?" Cassie asked. "I mean, if that thing was powering PAMA, then it's gotta be bad."

"Nope. Nothing dangerous at all about it. It's just a power source. The evil part was all PAMA." Fred corrected.

"Right on the money." Harper agreed. "Now that the Redstone Heart isn't powering PAMA, it can't hurt anyone."

Fred put the heart away.

"Well, this is mine now." Fred said.

"In fact, that thing can help you find your way home." Harper added.

"NO WAY!"

"That thing can us get home?" Jesse asked.

"Why didn't you say so before?" Fred agreed.

"Heh, if we actually made it through this alive, I thought you'd like a nice surprise." Harper said.

"Well, I'm ready to get out of this stink-hole." Fred added.

"The whole town will be waking up. We should be there to say hello!" Harper suggested.

"Plus, like Fred said, this place is a stink-hole." Jesse finished.

"You guys go on ahead. I need to make a quick pit-stop and retrieve Petra and Lukas. Be right back." Fred said.

Fred disappeared, leaving a trail of purple particles behind. Jesse, Ivor, Harper and Cassie exited PAMA's core.

* * *

(JESSE'S POV)

As they walked outside, Jesse noticed that it was now morning and that the mobs were now burning as usual.

"We did it!" Jesse celebrated. "You know, it's really nice being in control of my own body again."

"Just remember, you were only chipped for a little while. The rest of the townspeople, though…" Harper began.

Jesse saw that the entire town was now celebrating.

"Yeah, it must be a strange feeling. To suddenly be awake and aware after such a long time under PAMA's thrall." Ivor commented.

A dark-skinned citizen spotted them.

"It's you! You're the one who saved us!" The citizen greeted. "Who are you? You fought so bravely."

"Not stealing all the fame and attention, I hope." Fred's voice called out. Jesse turned around. Fred was back, and he was in his human form now, and following behind him was Petra, Lukas and Winslow.

"Winslow!" Cassie exclaimed as she grabbed Winslow.

"Well, I'm Jesse." Jesse pointed out. "And we're the Order of the Stone, BOOM!"

Jesse, Ivor, Petra and Lukas formed a pose. Fred just shook his head and Harper and Cassie looked at each other and shrugged.

"We walk the worlds, seeking adventure and going good deeds."

"Wow! Well, thank you. We owe you everything." The citizen responded.

Fred stepped up.

"Not only that, but I've got something I want to share with all of you." Fred said.

"And that is?" The citizen asked.

Fred flashed blue-white and revealed his Admin form. Gasps were heard everywhere.

"I was actually the one who stepped in and disabled that thing. But even I, an Admin, couldn't have done it alone, due to it interfering with my powers. Good thing I had Jesse and the order here to help me out." Fred pointed out. "That reminds me. Just for good measure."

Fred fired an energy bolt at PAMA's screen, leaving a gigantic hole in the middle where the inside of PAMA's core could be seen.

"Woah. Remind me not to get on your bad side." The citizen said.

Harper stepped in.

"That's right. Fred here and Jesse's Order of the Stone really are heroes. We couldn't have done any of this without them."

The citizen's smile faded.

"Harper? Is that… you?"

"Um… Yes. Hi Harry." Harper greeted.

"Oh, so he's the real Harry, like from the lab." Jesse heard Fred whisper in Ivor's ear.

"Yo-You didn't do this to us, did you?" Harry accused.

Harper gave a guilty look.

"You did." A female citizen gasped.

"Well, I-I mean, hey. It's complicated. You have to understand." Harper stammered.

Fred stepped in.

"What happened here, is PAMA's fault. Harper's intention with PAMA was to make mobs help out with farming or mining. None of this is her fault." Fred pointed out.

Harry scoffed.

"So, what? We're just supposed to forgive her now?"

"No, I don't think so." A female citizen agreed.

"Harper stripped this place bare, how are we supposed to rebuild?" Another citizen asked. "Are we supposed to deal with this mess all by ourselves?"

"No, you're not. Once Harper is done helping us. She is going to come back and help you guys rebuild." Fred assured.

"I… I will?" Harper asked.

"Yeah, she will?"

"Yeah, right Harper?" Jesse asked, elbowing her.

"Yes. Yes, I will. After I help these travelers find their way home, I come back, help you all find new resources, and we'll make this world great again." Harper said.

"Worth a shot I guess."

"Well, I think that's our cue to set out for home… again." Jesse said. The group started to walk towards the portal.

"Thank you, both of you, for being so understanding." Harper said to Fred and Jesse. "I just hope these people can do the same when I come back again."

"You helped free them. I'm sure they'll come around." Jesse reassured.

"I hope so."

They reached the portal and turned around.

"Good luck, everyone." Jesse called out.

"Yeah, we'll need it." Harry responded.

Jesse pulled out his flint and steel and approached the portal.

"Just one more thing left to do."

Jesse used it to light the portal.

"SEE YOU SOON, HARPER!" Harry called.

"See you soon!" Harper responded.

Cassie, Lukas, Ivor and Harper entered the portal. Petra, Jesse and Fred stayed behind.

"You know, Jesse. For all the grief we gave each other getting to this world, I'm really glad we came." Petra said.

"Yeah, Petra. Me too." Jesse agreed.

Fred turned back towards the citizens.

"By the way, I almost forgot. If you ever decide to travel to different worlds, do not mention my powers to ANYBODY!" Fred warned. "It's just… there are a few people who I haven't gotten along with in my world, and I'd rather have them not find out I'm around."

"Got it!" A few of them called back. Fred turned around and followed Petra and Jesse into the portal.

* * *

(FRED'S POV)

The entire group reappeared back in the Portal Hallway.

"Right back where we started." Jesse said.

"Is it weird that I'm happy to see this place again?" Lukas asked.

"No. It isn't. After what we just been through, this hallway is nothing compared to that." Fred responded.

"Now, when we built this place, we also made something that sorta acts like a compass-slash-map-slash-navigator." Harper said. "We called it, 'The Atlas'. It helps chart routes between the worlds."

Fred was glad to note that he did not know what this item was, for once. So it seems these 'Old Builders' can make their own stuff.

"And… you have this Atlas, right?" Petra asked.

"Uh, no. No I don't." Harper responded. "But! But, I know who does."

"Ughhhh!" Petra moaned.

"Huh, guess I should've seen that coming." Lukas pointed out.

"So wait, you can't get us home?" Jesse asked.

"Okay, okay, no. I might not be able to get you home, but I do know where to get the Atlas." Harper clarified. "Don't you worry! We'll just go right in, ask for the Atlas, and then you'll be home. No muss, no fuss… easy."

"I highly doubt it's going to be that easy." Fred commented.

"Agreed, whenever someone says that, my instincts start screaming 'danger'." Petra agreed.

"In order to find the Atlas… we need to track down the rest of the 'Old Builders.'" Harper explained. "Still don't like that name."

Cassie froze.

"How do we find them? Which portal do we go through?" Jesse asked.

"Oh, you don't have to go through another portal. What you're looking for has been right here the whole time." Harper responded.

Harper punched a hole in the wall.

"And there you go. All it's waiting for is the key." Harper said. "That's the Heart."

Fred pulled out the Redstone Heart and put it into the hole in the wall. At once, the place rumbled, and the teal colored portal moved out of the way, to show hundreds of stairs.

"The answers you're seeking, the Old Builder's Atlas, your way home." Harper pointed out. "It's all right up those stairs."

Fred noticed that Cassie seemed extremely pale and was shaking slightly.

"Adventure?" Ivor asked.

* * *

And that's a wrap for Access Denied.

Next up, we will meet the Old Builder's and 'hopefully' get that Atlas so that the group can go home. But do you really think it's going to be as simple as it sounds? Probably not.

(1) PAMA knows about the underneath because Fred had told them about Fred's Keep beforehand.

(2) I apologize if the profanity that Fred used while fighting PAMA was a bit offensive to some readers, but I really wanted to him to convey that rage that he was feeling at the time.

Like it? Review. Don't like it, look up another story.

Until next time.


	16. A Journey's End - Spleef

Chapter 16 – Spleef

* * *

Disclaimer: If you have not read **Fred: Admin in Exile** yet. I suggest you read that story first before reading this one.

* * *

Starting from this chapter, updates will be back to one chapter per day, with longer waiting gaps between each episode.

* * *

(Minecraft: Story Mode and its characters belong to Telltale Games, not me.)

* * *

"_The answers you're seeking, the Old Builder's Atlas, your way home." Harper pointed out. "It's all right up those stairs."_

_Fred noticed that Cassie seemed extremely pale and was shaking slightly._

"_Adventure?" Ivor asked._

* * *

(JESSE'S POV)

"Yes, Ivor. Adventure." Fred deadpanned in response.

Lukas pulled out his book.

"Wow. That is… that's a lot of stairs." He commented as he wrote something down.

"And all revealed by the Redstone Heart. Amazing." Ivor added.

"Yeah, not bad, right?" Harper agreed.

Fred walked over and pulled the heart out.

"After you." Harper gestured.

"Okay guys. Not sure what's up there, but whatever it is, we all need to stick together. Got it?" Jesse instructed.

"Yeah. We've got your back Jesse." Petra replied.

The group started walking up the stairs.

"Feels like just yesterday we were building this place." Harper sighed. "Still don't agree with some of the aesthetic choices. Very odd to be back."

"Can't wait to have a little 'word' with these Old Builders about that Redstone Heart." Fred began. "You know, perhaps give them a little reminder of who originally owned that heart."

Jesse and Harper gave Fred confused looks. What was Fred going on about? What did he mean by having history with that thing?

"Oh, right. I didn't tell you yet." Fred realized upon seeing their lost faces. "Back before Romeo betrayed me, the Command Block wasn't the only thing that was built using Admin powers. Xara, being the redstone genius she is, decided to create the Redstone Heart, which is like a much more powerful version of the Redstone Block."

"Wow. Small world." Harper commented. "To be honest, I never thought I would need to come back, to tell you the truth."

The group entered a strange void like area, with floating block patterns.

"Oh, I'm sensing a story here." Petra picked up.

"I… guess you could say that." Harper suggested.

"What are you hiding from us now, Harper?" Jesse asked, annoyed.

"Nothing! Nothing." Harper responded. "Well, almost nothing. Just… the others might not be 100% happy to see me."

"Yeah, well. They're not to know this, but it's me they should be afraid of." Fred piped in.

"Others? Are we going to meet more Old Builders?" Ivor inquired.

"Still don't like it when you call us that." Harper reminded. "Yep, but I gotta warn you. They're not as friendly as I am. I'm probably the, uh, nicest Old builder."

"Uh huh." Petra responded in understanding.

"Old Builder social politics!" Ivor exclaimed. "My goodness."

"Well. If they're not going to play nice." Fred began. He flashed blue-white and turned into his human form. "Then I'm not going to play nice."

"Well, you're gonna give us the Atlas, and then we can go home, right?" Lukas asked.

"Kind of, the Atlas isn't exactly mine to give." Harper explained. "It belongs to the other 'Old Builders.'"

Harper stopped.

"And, well, they might not want to give it up."

"Why do I get the feeling there's a lot you're not telling us?" Petra asked.

"Like I said." Fred reminded. "They don't play nice, I don't play nice."

Fred tapped his head in thinking.

"In fact, I'm formulating a plan here. Maybe I'll pretend to be a regular human like you guys, lead them into a false sense of security. If they are as stubborn as you make them out to be and we cannot come to a compromise, that'll be when I reveal my powers and take the Atlas by force."

They continued to walk.

"Jesse, Fred. Come here." Lukas whispered. Fred and Jesse listened in. "Are you sure we can trust Harper? Look at all of our interactions with her so far. They haven't exactly been great, remember?"

"Well, Harper did help us take down PAMA, so she can't be that bad." Fred pointed out.

"Only after almost letting us get captured by that thing." Lukas argued. "If I remember correctly, we actually helped her just about as much as she helped us."

"Don't worry. I will find a way to get that atlas, and then we will get home." Fred assured.

"I appreciate the vote of confidence, Fred." Harper piped in. "Sorry, I just couldn't resist a good eavesdrop. I promise I am trying to help, Lukas."

They approached a set of wooden doors.

"You just gotta go through there."

A door?

"A door? Like a regular door?" Jesse asked.

"Time to step through and find out." Harper replied mysteriously.

As Jesse reached out for the door, he noticed Cassie and Winslow standing near Fred. She hadn't said anything for the entire trip up the stairs. He also noted that she looked deathly pale, as if she didn't want to go through the wooden doors. She pulled out a White Pumpkin and stuffed it on her head. Jesse didn't question why.

Jesse opened the door, to find himself almost blinded by the sudden bright white light coming through it.

"Augh. Very bright!" Ivor complained.

"Okay, I'm going in to make sure it's safe." Fred said. "Don't follow until I give the all clear."

Fred walked in, vanishing under the bright light.

"I am sorry about this, but I'm afraid you're going to have to follow him anyway." Harper said. "Don't die!"

And Harper shoved them all in.

* * *

(FRED'S POV)

Fred felt himself falling face-first onto a patch of snow. Looking up, it seemed he had landed inside some kind of competition. Before he could so much as react, Jesse and the rest of the group landed next to him. He had no time to scold them now, for they needed to move.

"Come on, Nell!" An unpleasant female voice barked.

"I'm trying, Em!" Another female voice responded.

"Dig! Dig!"

Looking around, it seems they had landed themselves in the middle of a spleef tournament. Looking up, Fred saw some muscular armored dudes throwing TNT at them.

"Well, what do we have here?" A male voice sounded over the PA system. "Seems as if some new competitors have entered the match."

"My, isn't that special?" A female voice responded over the PA system.

"I just… what in the world did Harper dump us into?" Petra questioned.

"Don't stand still too long!" Fred warned. "They're doing Spleef!"

"Gesundheit?" Ivor replied, mistaking the word 'spleef' for a sneeze.

"No. No. It's a game." Fred explained. "You have to knock the floor out from other people and make them fall."

"BE LIKE TIIIM!" A competitor screamed as he jumped over a pit and approached Fred from behind with a shovel. Without looking, Fred just shoved a foot into him and kicked him over the edge. What Fred failed to see was that it led to a crusher which crushed people.

"Augh! That was my only decent teammate!" A mean-looking buff female competitor growled.

"Oh, I'm so sorry…._ not._" Fred deadpanned, saying 'not' under his breath.

However, Fred noticed that Petra, Cassie and Ivor seemed to have gotten themselves in a tiny bit of a predicament. Winslow was out of the way, good.

"Ooops. Did Facemeat drop something?" A gruff voice taunted above Fred and Jesse. "TNT!"

Facemeat dropped some TNT which was flashing. Fred grabbed Jesse and Lukas and dived them out of harm's way.

"Looks like the green team captain is…" The male PA voice began.

"Jesse! Jesse! Help!" Petra panicked.

"Little help?" Ivor asked, dodging flaming arrows.

Cassie was also surrounded by another set of competitors but didn't say anything.

"Okay. Lukas, you get Petra! Jesse, get Ivor! I'll get Cassie!" Fred instructed. He started to move towards Cassie, but he was too slow. A competitor got to her first and knocked the floor out.

Fred heard Jesse gasp behind him.

"Petra!" Jesse screamed.

"Lukas!" Ivor exclaimed.

"Cassie!" Fred yelled.

Fred could only watch in horror as she, plus Lukas and Petra landed on the ground below and was immediately crushed by crushers.

Time seemed to stop as that just happened. No. It can't be. They could not be dead. It was Reuben all over again.

"NO! NO! NO! NO!" Fred heard Jesse shout. He and Ivor were still alive.

"That's no. That's impossible." Ivor faltered.

"Whoa! No way dude, I got a double!" A blond-haired competitor bragged.

Fred screamed in rage. He saw red. How dare she brag about killing people? There is going to be hell to pay here. Fred cracked his muscles and started to approach the competitor. It took every ounce of his self-control not to strangle her with his Admin Powers right now. Fred kicked the competitor over, cracked his muscles again and raised his fist.

"Hey, hey, hey, whoa! This is a misunderstanding dude! What are you doing?" The competitor pleaded. Fred wasn't listening. He raised his fist and prepared to pounce when the mean looking competitor started shouting at him.

"HEY! PUNCHING COMPETITORS IS AGAINST THE RULES!"

Fred didn't care. Just as he was about to bring his fist down and end the life of this pathetic little squirt, he saw out of the corner of his eye, a dark-skinned figure approach him on a raised tower with a flashing set of TNT.

"Not cool, dude! SO NOT COOL!" He said as he threw the TNT. Fred grabbed it with one hand and threw it back up at him, knocking him off the tower as it exploded.

"Slab is down, I repeat Slab is down." Another male voice relayed on the PA system.

"STOP THE MATCH!" The first voice growled.

"Not since the days of Tim, have we seen such heated play!"

"That's totally against the rules, right?" The armored dark-skinned person complained.

"Yeah, I didn't think we cold throw TNT back at the gladiators. Nice one, brah." The blond-haired competitor complimented.

"Okay! No, no! This is not on!" Fred growled as Jesse and Ivor regrouped behind him. Fred grabbed the blond-haired competitor. "You killed three of our friends."

"Whoa now, I think…"

"Therefore, you have no right to compliment my fighting tactics, and you most DEFINITELY DO NOT HAVE THE RIGHT TO CALL ME YOUR 'BRAH!'"

"Whoa! Hang on, big dude! I'm not in charge here, okay? It's them!" She pointed.

Looking up, Fred saw three figures watching down on them. Two males and one female. These must be the Old Builder's.

"Yes, we're the ones in charge here." The female confirmed. She had cyan hair and a black and red robe.

"And we have never had to stop a match, ever!" The middle male added. He had white hair with a white beard and was wearing a purple suit.

"It definitely is strange, Mevia. What is going on here?" The second male agreed. He was balding and was wearing a green robe.

"I want an explanation, immediately!" Purple Suit said. He walked forward and started rapidly placing blocks, the two other Old Builder's following suit. They built around each other, descending until they reached the ground where Fred was.

"This is going to require some reconfiguring of the stats for sure." Green Robe said as they approached Fred, Jesse and Ivor.

Jesse stepped in.

"My friends are dead! You killed them!" Jesse accused.

"Wait, wait, wait, and that's why you're ruining our games?" Cyan Hair who Fred assumed was 'Mevia' responded.

"Yeah, come on, Jeez! How petty are you?" Purple Suit questioned.

Mevia scoffed.

"Lashing out just because your friends were eliminated."

"Kind of 'sore loser' behavior, don't you think, sport?" Purple Suit agreed.

"It is part of the games." Green Robe explained.

"Hmm, maybe I should introduce you guys to Romeo sometime. I'm sure you guys would get along 'famously.'" Fred drawled. "As in, you're all power-mad egomaniacs who kill people just for fun!"

"Why you little-" Mevia growled. Purple Suit held out a hand to stop her.

"Are you people crazy?!" Jesse questioned disbelievingly. "People are dying out here, and you're still talking about 'games?'"

"Oh, wow. You don't know, do you?" Green Robe realized. "Your friends aren't dead."

Wait, what?

"Wait. What? How?!" Jesse inquired, mirroring Fred's thoughts.

"When people are eliminated in the games, they don't die." Green Robe explained.

"That would be wasteful." Purple Suit said.

"Obviously, they come back, and we have them go work in the mines." Mevia finished.

"Jesse!" Lukas' voice cried. Fred, Jesse and Ivor looked behind them. Sure enough, Lukas was there, without his armor. Behind him was Petra in her original clothes and Cassie without her White Pumpkin mask, who seemed to be hanging back.

A gladiator approached them, grabbed them and carried them away."

"Your friends are alive and well." Purple Suit pointed out.

"Let my friends go!" Jesse demanded.

"Sorry sport, but they WERE eliminated." Purple Suit reminded.

"Them's the rules." Mevia finished in a sing-song voice.

"It's called 'respawning', champ." Purple Suit explained upon seeing Jesse's dumbfounded expression. "We're not monsters."

"Ahem, in our games, when people 'die' they reappear in one of our 'respawn zones.'" Green Robe explained.

"I hear it's still pretty painful though." Mevia added.

"Well, sport. Now that you've come and interrupted our games, I'm sure our fans would LOVE to know how you got here. Spill!" Purple Suit demanded.

"I'm not telling you a damn thing until you release our friends!" Fred snapped back.

"Well, that's cute." Purple Suit commented. "Almost as cute as you'll look down in the mines, slugger."

Purple Suit turned and began to walk away.

As the dark-skinned gladiator approached Fred with a sword, Fred turned around and gave him one of his infamous glares, but without the Admin Eyes. Fred deduced straight away that their current approach wasn't working at all. As Fred was about to reveal his admin form, Harper's voice cut in.

"Augh, let's not get hot-headed, Hadrian!" Harper said. "Jesse and Fred over here, they're with me."

"We-hell, if it isn't Harper." Hadrian announced.

"I must say, this return is unexpected." Green Robe admitted.

"You're telling me. I'm here for these three." Harper pointed out, gesturing towards Fred, Jesse and Ivor.

"Ohhh, really?" Hadrian inquired, as if he didn't believe Harper. (He probably didn't.) "So tell me, champs? Why do you think Harper brought you guys here?"

Fred held out a hand.

"Atlas. Give it here, now!" He demanded.

"Straight and to the point." Hadrian commented. "I'd like it. If I weren't simmering with barely controlled rage right now!"

"We're, of course, not going to do any of those things but… admirable try!" Mevia taunted.

"That's all well and good, but I'm confused. Why would we give ANYTHING to someone like you?" Hadrian asked. "You weren't invited."

"And you interrupted Spleef." Mevia added.

"Oh, trust me. If you knew who I really was, you wouldn't be asking that question right now." Fred smugly replied.

"Hmm… That'd be hard to imagine. You see, I could be watching Slab squash you right now, which would be highly entertaining." Hadrian responded.

"Squash!" Slab added, with a sadistic tone.

"I love it when he does that. What could you possibly offer that's better than that, slugger?" Hadrian questioned. "I doubt you'd have anything that would interest us."

"Well, what if I told you that I personally know the original inventor of this thing?" Fred asked, pulling the Redstone Heart out. This prompted all three of the Old Builders to gasp in surprise. "I hereby present to you…"

"The Redstone Heart." Hadrian finished. "Seems like only yesterday SOMEONE took off with that and vowed 'never to return with it.'"

"Oh, but I didn't bring it back. Fred and Jesse here did." Harper said.

"Thing's no toy, slugger. How about you just hand it over, huh?" Hadrian suggested. "It can be, ha, pretty dangerous if you don't know how to use it."

"Oh, you're interested in this thing? Aren't you?" Fred taunted, waving it around.

"You've certainly got my attention, yeah." Hadrian admitted. "Here's the way my offer works. You give me the heart, you and your friends go back down to those portals, I never look at your insignificant face again."

Fred put the Redstone Heart away.

"Nope."

"What?" Hadrian questioned dangerously.

"You heard. I'm not giving you the heart. Not until you give me the Atlas. I will not hesitate to take the Atlas by force if you don't hand it over." Fred threatened.

"Oh, this guy knows how to play." Hadrian commented. He turned away. "Well, you need the Atlas. And I, need competitors. After your unexpected intrusion I seem to be short a team."

"And? The moral of the story is?" Fred questioned, raising an eyebrow.

"You play in the games, if you win, the Atlas is yours to keep." Hadrian offered. Fred had a strong feeling that this guy was not going to hold up his end of the deal, he could tell it in his voice.

"It's a good deal, Fred." Hadrian assured. "Trust me, everyone enjoys these games."

"Yeah, sorry. But I have no reason to trust you right now." Fred pointed out.

"Don't you worry, Fred. Once a rule is written into the Bylaws, we make sure it's enforced." Green Robe assured. "Isn't that right, Hadrian?"

"Oh, yeah. Otto is a real stickler for 'the rules.'" Hadrian drawled.

"Hmph! Alright then, I suppose we can carry forward with the official addendum…" Otto began.

"Oh, Otto. Enough. Add it onto your own time." Hadrian groaned. "Oh, and there's one other thing I want. If they lose, Harper has to go to the mines too."

"Oh, gravel." Harper responded.

"Harper, wanna be a friend and show our new competitors to where they'll be staying?" Hadrian asked.

"Sure thing." Harper responded, with just as much hostility in her voice.

They turned around and exited the stadium.

"Fred, Jesse, this was not part of the plan." Harper said. "Wrapped up in one of Hadrian's 'deals', ugh. He's not one to let other people get the upper hand, ya know."

"Wait, but this was your plan! You said you had it all worked out!" Jesse reminded.

"Yeah, about that. I didn't think you'd willingly come here. I might've acted in haste." Harper admitted. "Before, uh, I could work out the details."

"What? What is she going on about?" Fred asked.

"Harper pushed us in after you jumped in first." Jesse explained.

"Is that so?" Fred inquired, giving Harper a glare with Admin eyes.

Harper sighed.

"I'm… I'm sorry, okay? I really am." She apologized. "Lemme show you where the competitor village is."

Fred saw Winslow sitting on his own a fair distance away.

"Come on Winslow!" Fred called. Winslow gave an uncertain look, before slowly walking towards Fred.

Harper led them away from the stadium.

* * *

Author's Notes: Wow, this episode went off to a flying start, didn't it?

I know you were probably expecting the Old Builders to react to Cassie's presence, but right now, they haven't fully seen her, so they don't know it's her.

Like it? Review. Don't like it, look up another story.

More to follow.


	17. A Journey's End - The Village

Chapter 17 – The Village

* * *

Disclaimer: If you have not read **Fred: Admin in Exile** yet. I suggest you read that story first before reading this one.

(Minecraft: Story Mode and its characters belong to Telltale Games, not me.)

* * *

(JESSE'S POV)

Harper led Ivor, Jesse and Fred away from the stadium and towards the competitor village, Winslow walking standing by Fred's side.

"We used to have competitors from all over travel here to play in the games, at least until the Others ruined it." Harper explained.

"What happened?" Jesse asked.

"Hadrian and Mevia let power go to their heads. They started pitting people against each other, just for sport!" Harper responded. "Forcing people to be here, it isn't right."

They arrived at the entrance gates to the village. There were two sword shaped builds made of ice on top of the gates.

"Come on, I'll show you where you'll be staying." Harper said, as the gates opened. They walked inside.

Inside, Jesse saw various competitors in jumpsuits running around doing training exercises. The jumpsuits varied from purple to blue to green to yellow.

"Well, here it is." Harper announced. "The competitor village. Sort of a 'home away from home' for all the people playing the games."

"So, all of these people here are competitors in the games?" Fred asked.

"Yep." Harper confirmed. "At least the ones who aren't stuck working in the quartz mines. Those poor souls are waiting for their next shot."

Jesse saw a group of people in red jumpsuits walking out of a shop carrying shovels. The sign above the door said, 'SHOVEL PLANET'.

"Mining is tough work." Harper described. "I feel bad for the people that are too scared, or weak, to play in the games."

"You don't approve of this, don't you?" Fred said.

"No, I don't." Harper responded. "Believe me, these people would rather be here in the village than working in the mines."

Jesse saw a hungry looking purple competitor approach some bread on a bench at a kitchen nearby, only to be chased away by a mean pink haired gladiator.

"They didn't make a deal like you did, Fred." Harper said. "They're stuck here until they win the games."

"And if they lose?" Ivor questioned.

"Hadrian sends them to toil in the mines." Harper replied. Jesse saw a bunch of miners enter a nether portal. "If they're lucky, they'll get another shot at the games, but it might take a while."

Harper turned towards them.

"I'm gonna go confer with Otto. We go way back and, well, he's usually the most reasonable of the three." Harper said.

"Hold on a moment. We still haven't found Petra, Cassie or Lukas." Ivor pointed out.

"I'm thinking that Hadrian must have sent them through the portal to the mines." Harper responded. "Which is technically against the rules. No one's supposed to go there until their whole team is eliminated."

"Nuh uh. No way. They do NOT get to put my friends in their stupid mines." Jesse challenged, determined.

"Right with ya." Fred agreed.

"Hadrian always was one for maximizing useful- er, productivity." Harper admitted. "See what you can do here, I'm going to try and find Otto. I've got confidence in you three. You might just get out of this."

Jesse, Fred and Ivor regrouped. Winslow following Fred as if he was his shadow.

"We gotta get our friends out of the mines, quick." Jesse instructed.

"I'll see if any of these other competitors have any, promising leads." Ivor responded.

"Okay. Meanwhile, I want a word with that blonde competitor over there." Fred said, eyes narrowed. Jesse saw that he was staring at the competitor that eliminated their friends. Fred began to walk in that direction.

* * *

(FRED'S POV)

Fred approached the blonde competitor, who noticed him immediately.

"Woah. It's you, from Spleef. You were, like, amazing. I'm Nell." She introduced herself. "And I am SO super sorry about your friends. I get you're probs upset. Especially since you had no idea what was going on."

"To be honest, I am a little bit." Fred admitted.

"Totally get it, brah." Nell agreed. "I will never do that to one of your friends again because, man, I do not want to be on your bad side."

"Yeah, see to it that you don't." Fred responded.

"I gotta say, the way you just grabbed that TNT with your bare hands and just blew that gladiator out of his tower. You keep playing like that and you'll be like Tim status."

"I'm not following. Come again?" Fred asked.

"Tim! Like, 'The Legend of Tim' Tim. On the signs!" Nell pointed. Fred looked behind him. Sure enough, he saw portraits of a blue-eyed figure wearing golden armor. Fred had to admit, this 'Tim' guy did look pretty impressive. "He, like, WON! Okay? Like you could! People could like, already be talking. They're gonna like say stuff. Compare you to Tim."

"Oh yeah. I'm definitely going to win these games too!" Fred stated proudly. Oh, if only these people knew about his Admin powers.

"No doubt. No doubt." Nell agreed. "Okay, don't like, tell anyone, but I would rather be on your team. Green team captain is, like… She is so not chill."

Fred saw the captain jumping up and down, doing training exercises. Yeah, she definitely needs to chill out a little bit.

"Listen, I still feel super bad about taking out your friend." Nell said. "I owe you, so if you ever need ANYTHING, you just come and ask, cha?"

"You know what, I think I will." Fred said. "And I accept your apology about what you did back in spleef. You were right, we had no idea what was going on."

Fred approached the green team captain. Getting a look at her closely, Fred saw that she was just as well built as he was.

"Hey." Fred greeted. The captain scowled at him.

"'You're' the one that eliminated the 'one' decent member of my team. I'll barely be able to get through to the next round."

"Sorry." Fred responded, not a shred of remorse in his tone.

"Pfff. Whatever." The captain bitterly replied. "Next round, if I don't get you, one of the gladiators will."

"Yeah, right." Fred scoffed.

"You haven't been here long, so you wouldn't know. But the gladiators are trained for everything. And they are completely under Hadrian's control."

"Is that so? Well, take a good look at me. Do I look like some kind of push-over?" Fred questioned. "I can hold my own against those 'gladiators'. Don't worry about that."

"I wouldn't get cocky if I were you." The captain warned. "I feel kinda bad for you, most of us got snatched against our wills, but you got tricked into coming willingly. That Old Builder should've told you these games were impossible."

Fred rolled his eyes. Why was he even talking to this jerk anyway?

"Ugh! Come on, Winslow." Fred called to Winslow, walking away. Winslow followed.

* * *

(JESSE'S POV)

Meanwhile, Jesse had gone to speak with Facemeat about getting his friends out of the mines.

"Um, hello?" Jesse greeted.

"Don't you hello Facemeat!" Facemeat growled. He paused in recognition, before standing up. "Wait a minute, you're one of those cheaters that blew up my friend, Slab! And Facemeat. Doesn't! Like! Cheaters! Don't stand around breathing up all of Facemeat's air."

"Do you know where my friends are?" Jesse asked.

"In the mines… duh. And they're not going anywhere. Not on Facemeat's watch. That doesn't mean just stand there."

Jesse just gave him a narrowed eyed stare. Facemeat conceded.

"Facemeat was busy slamming mad reps at the gym and missed lunchtime, ya see?" Facemeat explained. "Facemeat's hungry. Do something about that and Facemeat'll think about getting your friends out."

Facemeat sat back down.

Jesse walked off. In the distance, he could see Fred and Slab in an argument.

"You say somethin', idiot? Because I'm tryin' to read here." Slab said.

"That book that you have, I want you to hand it over." Fred demanded. "Now!"

"Oh, wow. That was so scary. I almost fell over." Slab responded, voice dipping with sarcasm.

Fred simply raised an eyebrow.

"Hey, wait a minute." Slab said in realization. "You're that idiot that knocked me outta my tower! Yeah! And this belonged to that little blond buddy of yours! And you expect me to just hand it over?"

"That's exactly what I expect you to do. Hand! It! Over!" Fred threatened, holding his hand out.

"I'M SLAB, THE IMMOVABLE!" Slab exclaimed proudly. "Get out of here before I use this book to punch your face in."

Fred reached out and snatched it out of Slab's grip.

"Thank you!" Fred said, pocketing it. He began to walk away.

"HEY!" Slab yelled. He drew his sword and began to run towards Fred.

Fred simply spawned two sets of slime blocks in his hand and quickly placed them behind him, knocking Slab back.

"Okay, fine! You win this one! But don't expect me to be so lenient next time!" Slab conceded.

Fred rolled his eyes. Seeing Jesse watching him, Fred approached.

"Hey, Jesse!" Fred greeted. "What's up?"

Jesse lead him to an empty alleyway.

"Fred, you couldn't by any chance spawn some food, could you?" Jesse asked. "This Facemeat guy asked for some food before he would let my friends out.

"Oh, so you did make a deal with him. Good to hear." Fred said. A piece of bread appeared in Jesse's hand. "Here. He can have a piece of bread."

"Thanks." Jesse responded before walking out and approaching Facemeat again. Fred and Winslow following. Jesse pulled out the piece of bread that Fred spawned and waved it out to Facemeat.

"Heyyy Facemeat. Got some bread for ya!" Jesse waved the bread out, as if Facemeat was a puppy.

Facemeat grabbed it.

"Bread, huh? It's not cake, but Facemeat IS starving." Facemeat commented. He began to eat it. "It's so warm! And full of carbs!"

"Okay, it's time for you to uphold your end of the deal." Fred reminded. "Which is to retrieve our friends out of the mines."

Facemeat nodded.

"Hang on." He said. Facemeat turned around and entered the nether portal. Ivor approached them.

* * *

(FRED'S POV)

"Jesse, Fred. Hello." Ivor greeted.

"Hey Ivor." Jesse said.

"There's been something I've been wanting to say." Ivor admitted. "It's about how you saved me back there in that game. I… I really appreciate it, Jesse. I… ugh… I couldn't have done it without you is what I'm trying to say."

"Of course I saved you, Ivor. We're friends." Jesse said.

"Well, yes. And I suppose that is very lucky for you, isn't it?"

"Well. I'm glad you're in this with me. Both of you." Jesse stated.

"Me too, friend." Ivor responded.

"Agreed." Fred agreed.

"HERE! GO AWAY! RESPAWNS!" Facemeat demanded as he threw Lukas, Cassie and Petra out of the portal.

"Jesse! Man is it good to see you." Lukas greeted.

"You too Lukas." Jesse replied.

Petra and Cassie got up.

"WINSLOW!" Cassie exclaimed. "Oh, I am so glad to see that you're okay."

"Jesse!" Petra exclaimed, although not as loudly. "I really hope you've got our stuff, because I am not liking being armorless here."

Jesse gave a sheepish grin.

"So, I guess that's a 'no' on my journal, too." Lukas assumed.

"Actually, Lukas. I actually managed to save your journal." Fred said, giving it to Lukas. "But that was the only thing I was able to salvage."

Petra sighed.

"Give it to me straight. What did Harper get us into here?"

"Yeah, Harper is a tricky one." Lukas agreed.

"Don't worry, we're just in this tournament where if we win, we get the Atlas and our ticket home." Jesse assured.

"Oh, well that's not so bad." Petra commented.

"Of course, if we lose. We, um, spend an eternity mining for quartz through that portal." Ivor added.

"Nope. That is not a thing I want." Lukas responded.

A miner appeared through the portal.

"Hey, you guys! I need to talk!" He shouted.

Facemeat gave a laugh as he shoved the miner back through the portal.

"It's pretty bad in there, Jesse." Lukas admitted. "They don't even do anything to keep the pigmen away so they just… stare at you while you mine."

"Well, we're not going to just leave. We are going to win this." Fred reassured them.

"Good. We need to." Lukas replied.

"Apparently this 'Tim' guy did it." Fred continued.

"That's true." Cassie confirmed. "This 'Tim' guy won these games a long time ago and managed to carry his entire team across the finish line. You should hear what theories they are coming up with about you in there. I think I actually heard someone saying that you, Fred, are actually 'Tim' who decided to return, in disguise."

Fred snorted. What kind of stupid theory was that?

They looked at the podium in the middle of the courtyard where a poster of Tim was placed.

"They say he was three blocks tall, and that he carried his entire team across the finish line." Lukas continued.

"Tim seems fantastic." Ivor added.

"Well, you're out of those mines now." Jesse said. "According to Harper, until our entire team is eliminated, you're allowed to stay here in the village."

"That's right. Your friends weren't supposed to go to the mines yet." Otto's voice agreed. Looking behind him, Jesse saw Otto and Harper approaching the group. "I am sincerely sorry about that."

Otto's eyes found their way towards Cassie Rose.

"Cassie? Wow, long time no see." Otto greeted.

Cassie sighed.

"Hello, Otto. Yes. It has been a while."

"Wait, you two know each other?" Fred asked. Harper gave Fred a confused look, indicating that she didn't know this either.

"It happened after Harper here had already left. Cassie… was a competitor, quite a while ago. Before she managed to escape under Hadrian's nose." Otto explained. "Hadrian is going to have puppies if and when he finds out that Cassie here has returned."

"Oh. That's interesting." Fred remarked.

"Agreed." Jesse agreed.

"Anyway, this is Otto." Harper introduced. "My old friend."

"Hello, Otto. I'm Fred." Fred greeted as he and Otto shook hands. "I gotta say though, you don't seem quite as mean as the other two Old Builders. Are you going to be helping us?"

"Well, I'll enforce the rules at any rate." Otto said. "If that helps you then, can't be games without rules. Harper's been filing me in about you. From the stories she's told… I'm impressed. You might actually make it to the top. In fact, you're the most exciting thing to come to this place in a loooong time. A real wild card."

Fred and Jesse looked at each other and shrugged.

"I think you might be a real Tim in the making. Yup, a 'real' Tim." Otto finished. Fred became slightly skeptical. What did he mean by 'real' Tim? Fred decided not to probe.

"Great! As long as I get to go home." Jesse said.

"That is the point. But you have to win, first." Otto reminded. "And my job is to make sure everybody, even Hadrian, plays by the rules. I'm rooting for ya, kid. Just don't disappoint me."

Otto looked over to Fred.

"Oh, and Fred. Can I borrow you for a second? There's something I'd like to discuss in private."

Fred followed Otto into an alleyway.

"I'm just going to put it out there now, that I know about your Admin powers." Otto said. "Harper told me. And I gotta say, I do agree with your plan to lure Hadrian and Mevia into a false sense of security. You can really shake things up if you play your cards right."

"Well. I'm glad to know that I have earned your support." Fred responded.

"Likewise, now. Let's get back to the others." Otto suggested.

Otto and Fred returned. Otto gave a nod before turning around and walking off.

"Can we trust him, Harper?" Petra asked.

"Who knows?" Harper responded. "Otto's been doing this forever. At least he seemed interested. Anyway, dorms are over there. You've got a big day tomorrow."

"That sounds awesome. Can't wait to just 'sit' for a little while." Lukas said.

"And in the morning, we are winning and getting us all out of here." Jesse finished.

"I just hope this next event isn't too… deadly." Ivor added.

They retreated to the dormitory.

* * *

Author's Notes: So, yep. Otto knows about Cassie's return and Fred's powers.

Next chapter, we will be seeing a little bit more action.

Like it? Review. Don't like it, look up another story.

More to follow.


	18. A Journey's End - Lava Race

Chapter 18 – Lava Race

* * *

Disclaimer: If you have not read **Fred: Admin in Exile** yet. I suggest you read that story first before reading this one.

(Minecraft: Story Mode and its characters belong to Telltale Games, not me.)

* * *

(FRED'S POV)

"Hello competitors, and welcome to the next day of the Games. And, it's gonna be a hot one!" Hadrian's voice announced as Fred, Jesse, Ivor and the rest of the competitors got ready.

"Woo! Yes, it is, Hadrian!" Mevia's voice answered. "And how're our teams looking, Otto?"

"Well, Mevia. Purple, Green and Yellow are still making a strong showing." Otto's voice said. "But after yesterday's performance in Spleef, I'm afraid to say that the Red Team has been completely eliminated."

"Aww, I guess it's back to the mines for them!" Mevia taunted.

"And, of course, about our plucky newcomers-"

"Otto, shut up!" Hadrian interrupted. "We don't need to hear about them. Well, for everyone else, don't forget to be like Tim out there!"

"Ugh! Hadrian and Mevia? Pair of egotistical megalomaniacs if you ask me." Fred commented.

"Oh my gosh, yes. I am so sick of those pompous jerks." Jesse agreed.

"Yes, I can't say I'm terribly fond of them either." Ivor added.

"Alright competitors, the next event is almost upon us. Time to head to the starting line!" Hadrian's voice instructed.

"'Starting line,' huh?" Jesse inquired.

"Seems to me that they are talking about a race." Fred deduced.

"Oh, great. A run for my life. Just what I was hoping for." Ivor retorted sarcastically.

"A little exercise won't kill you, Ivor." Fred responded.

"Freddy here does have a point." Hadrian agreed, walking inside the room. "Boom! Surprise Locker Room Visit! Ha! How we doing everybody?"

Fred groaned. Just great, first PAMA, now Hadrian was calling hm that.

"It's Hadrian!" A competitor whispered.

Hadrian approached Fred, Ivor and Jesse.

"And here are the newcomers that everyone's been talking about since their, heh, explosive debut in spleef." Hadrian said. "Tell me champ, what's on your mind as you approach the next challenge? Make sure you smile when that spotlight's on you."

"I'm not gonna be in your twisted 'interview,' Hadrian. Get out of my face." Jesse snapped.

"Oh, I'll get out of your face. But I will be LAUGHING at your face from my nice, cushy box while I watch you burn." Hadrian retorted. "I promise you that, you little NOTHING."

Hadrian looked around, scaring off the other competitors that were listening in.

"Listen up, Buck-o. These are supposed to be games. These are supposed to be FUN." Hadrian continued. "So play, along."

Fred snorted. That's bold, coming from him. Ordering an Admin around. Then again, he isn't to know that. This did not go unnoticed by Hadrian.

"Something you want to say, Freddy?" Hadrian asked.

"Yes, there is." Fred responded. He pointed to the door. "Piss off!"

"Well, aren't you some bold little so and so's." Hadrian remarked. "Watching you burn is going to be EXTRA satisfying."

Hadrian turned around and began to walk away, laughing.

"What a lovely day for a game." Hadrian said as he left the room.

Fred saw the leader of the green team approaching them, a dark-skinned guy and Nell hot on her tail.

"Jesse, Fred. Good luck out there." She said. "I'm sure you'll be great, but, well everyone could always use a little dose of luck, right?"

"Thanks, Em. Good luck to you too." Jesse responded.

"Of course, I saw what you guys did in Spleef, then you made that deal with Hadrian and I thought; An enemy of 'my' enemy is 'my' friend."

"What are you getting at here?" Fred questioned.

"What I am getting at is, why don't we work together on this?" Em said. "I could use an ally, and you could use my help. Come on, guys. I'm trying to help you out here."

"How's that gonna work?" Jesse asked.

"A bigger group has a better chance of getting past the gladiators. Trust me." Em responded. "In the middle of the race is a part with tons of gladiators. That's when we should all team up. Defeat them, then race to the finish. Well? What do ya say? Unless you 'don't' want the help of a former gladiator."

Fred considered for a moment. Em was right, they could always use an extra pair of hands. But then again, how did he know if Em was going to betray them or not? Fred decided to give it a chance.

"We accept your proposition." Fred said. To further test Em's true character, he chose not to mention anything about what would happen if she betrayed them.

"Good. I won't let you down." Em promised.

"Competitors, to the starting line!" Hadrian's voice instructed.

"Meet ya at Gladiator Junction." Em waved as she walked off.

"I'm glad she'll be on our side." Ivor said. "At whatever a Gladiator Junction is. I don't know about this, guys. Cardio isn't really my thing. If I were Hadrian, I'd be up to some suspicious activity."

"Don't worry, we're in this together." Jesse assured. "You, me and Fred."

"That's good to hear, Jesse." Ivor responded. "We can do this!"

"Agreed." Fred agreed.

They entered a room with four tunnels. Three of the tunnels had competitors lining up at. Fred, Jesse and Ivor approached the empty one.

"Psst… Fred?" Nell called out. "I just like wanted to say, it's like an honor to be working together. And I'm glad that Em like totally suggested that."

"We can do this." A dark-skinned green team competitor agreed.

"Yep!" Fred responded.

"I knew you guys were cool from the moment we met." Nell said.

"Competitors, on your mark!" Mevia's voice called out. They got onto all fours.

"Get set!" Otto's voice said.

"GO!" Hadrian's voice finished. They immediately started running into the tunnel.

The three of them dived through, around and over various lava obstacles as they raced through the tunnel.

"We did it!" Jesse panted.

"I love a good lava-based build as much as the next guy, but this is a little treacherous for even my tastes!" Ivor added, panting.

"Oi, slow pokes! Keep up!" Fred ordered.

"What did we get ourselves into?" Jesse groaned.

"And you're just getting started!" A yellow guy answered.

A flaming arrow barely missed Jesse's head.

"Outta the way, chumps!" The yellow guy with the bow demanded. Fred pulled out an enchanted sword. He moved to attack a yellow guy, when the first guy with the bow interrupted him.

"Not quite!"

Fred dodged the arrow and eliminated the guy with his sword. He saw Jesse eliminate another yellow team member. The remaining members quickly fled, realizing that they were losing there.

They jumped down a hole, which led to a waterfall which took them into a large arena.

"Okay, sounds like this is Gladiator Junction, but where are the Gladiators?" Jesse asked as he climbed out of the water.

He was swiftly answered by an explosion of TNT, knocking the dark-skinned green guy across the arena.

"OW! MY BODY!"

"Whoa! That answers that question." Jesse said. Fred took a look around, there were Gladiators standing on towers, while Slab and the Pink-Haired gladiator was on the ground. Em approached them.

"Guys! Sup! You ready for the fun part?" Em asked.

"I sure hope so." Jesse responded.

"Come on then!" Em said as she took off. She eliminated members from both the purple and yellow teams.

"Glad she is on our side, Fred." Ivor commented.

The group approached Slab and the pink haired gladiator, who had just finished beating up a few competitors. Slab's eyes narrowed upon spotting Fred.

"You're mine! I've been dreaming about this since Spleef." Slab threatened.

"Oh yeah, Slab? Because you seem pretty outnumbered." Jesse responded.

"Just means more fun for me." Slab said.

"We'll see about that, right Em?... Em?" Jesse faltered upon seeing that Em was no longer behind him. Fred saw Em sneak up on Jesse and kick him.

"I KNEW IT! I KNEW I SHOULDN'T HAVE TRUSTED YOU!" Fred growled, but was unable to chase after her as Gladiators were approaching Jesse, who was still on the ground.

"Bye, squishy!" Slab said as he brought his sword down. Jesse rolled out of the way just in time. Ivor pushed slab back and pulled out a potion.

"POTION OF LEAPING!" Ivor called. Slab responded by breaking the potion bottle. The pink haired gladiator stepped in and finished Ivor off.

"NOOOOO!" Jesse cried.

Fred ran towards the pink haired gladiator. There was no way she was going to get out of this unharmed after harming Ivor.

"Come here, Pink Hair!" Fred growled as he ran towards her. He gave her a punch in the face, flinched back to avoid her enchanted axe, grabbed her arm, used his Admin Strength to pull the axe out of her grip. He kicked her down, put the axe away, unsheathed his sword and plunged it directly into her chest. She poofed into smoke instantly. Fred collected all of the armor parts and items that she dropped. Fred could hear the gasps of the other gladiators as they saw him finish her off.

Meanwhile, Slab got the upper hand with Jesse. He managed to destroy Jesse's sword. Facemeat chose that time to attack with TNT.

"Here comes the boom!" Facemeat called as he threw the TNT towards Jesse. Slab and Jesse ducked out of the way. Fred helped Jesse up.

"You okay, Jesse?" Fred questioned.

"Yeah, I'm fine." Jesse answered.

Fred saw that Slab was quite some distance away and was distracted. Looking towards his left, he saw Em race off into a passage.

"Oh, hell no!" Fred snarled. "You're not getting away that easily. Come on Jesse!"

Fred and Jesse raced after Em, who was now climbing the vines alongside Nell.

"Dude! I am like so close, I could do this!" Nell said.

"Sorry, Nell! _We're_ winning this thing!" Jesse responded.

Fred and Jesse jumped over the lava pit onto the vines and began to climb up, quickly reaching Nell.

"Hey, whoa Jesse! Fred! Way to catch up, dudes! Very nice!" Nell complimented.

Em, was shaking in fury.

"You just can't take a hint, can you?" Em growled. She knocked Nell off. "Get dunked on, you slander!"

Fred immediately tried to catch her, but only brushed her fingers as she continued falling, straight into the lava. Jesse chased after Em, Fred hot on his tail. Fred saw Em lunge at Jesse with an iron sword. Jesse managed to dodge in time.

"Looking a little swordless there. Jesse." Em taunted. Jesse dodged another swing. Fred saw the netherrack and got an idea.

Fred used his powers to take the flint and steel from Jesse's inventory while Em was distracted. As Em lunged at Jesse again, Fred used the flint and steel to create a tower of blue flames, knocking Em back.

"Boy, am I glad that we've still got you." Fred said as he gave it back to Jesse. Fred suddenly got a mischievous idea. Since Fred and Jesse were obviously going to win the race now, Fred decided to play with Hadrian a little bit. Fred flashed blue-white, disguising himself as 'Em.'

Em's eyes widened at what 'Em' (Fred) just did. Fred gestured for Jesse to follow.

"Wait, no!" Em pleaded, realizing what 'Em' (Fred) was planning to do. 'Em' (Fred) and Jesse went up the stairs.

* * *

Meanwhile, at the finishing line.

"This race is almost over, and we will soon have a winner. And I think I know who it might be." Hadrian said.

'Em' (Fred) stepped out, Jesse lagging behind to make sure they buy the disguise, which they did.

"And the winner of the Lava Race, the gladiator formerly known as… EMILY." Otto announced.

While Hadrian and Mevia weren't looking, 'Em' (Fred) looked directly into Otto's eyes and winked, flashing his Admin eyes. Otto's eyes widened, and he winked back, indicating that he understood what was going on.

"I trust you made good on our deal?" Hadrian asked.

"I did." 'Em' (Fred) responded.

"if that's true, then why hasn't Jesse and Freddy respawned yet?" Hadrian questioned.

'Em' (Fred) simply gave a smirk that seemed more appropriate to himself than Em. Jesse and the real Em stepped out.

"Whoa, whoa, whoa! What's going on?" Hadrian exclaimed, confused. "Why are there two Emily's?"

'Em' (Fred) gave a quick chuckle, before switching disguises between 'Em' and his human form in a flash of blue-white.

"Hello. Hadrian." Fred greeted cheerfully. "Like my disguise?"

"Oh, so it seems you can change into other people, very funny." Hadrian said, brushing the issue aside. "You can also explain why I saw Clutch respawn!"

Fred responded by blowing a raspberry before turning towards Jesse and Em.

"Jesse? Fred?" Em questioned, looking at them apprehensively.

"And there appears to be a confrontation on the field." Mevia announced.

"Bet you didn't think we'd win." Jesse said. "But, we did."

"This just went from bad to worse." Em responded.

"So, you decided to trick me into thinking Em here won, when it was really you who won." Hadrian noted. "Still don't know how you did that, but impressive."

Hadrian turned to Em.

"And you, you were supposed to eliminate these two. Our deal's off."

"NO! PLEASE!" Em pleaded. Hadrian ignored her as he, Mevia and Otto walked away.

Em sighed.

"You probably think I'm scum or whatever but, you know what? I don't even care." Em deadpanned. "You have 'your' deal. If you win, you and your friends will just leave us anyway."

Fred saw Ivor respawn behind him. He was wearing a white tank-top and blue and white striped boxes. Fred tried very hard to stop a grin from appearing on his face.

"My shot at going home just went up in smoke, so feel free to judge all you want." Em continued. "Hard to hurt me any more than Hadrian did just now."

"You really trusted 'Hadrian?' That guy's like a Creeper in a purple power suit." Jesse responded.

"Hey, you try being stuck here as long as I have, then you can talk." Em snapped.

"Really? Then try spending 90 years in exile. Then you'll really know about it." Fred said, still fighting not to laugh at Ivor's outfit.

Em stormed off.

"I'm outta here."

Ivor approached them.

"That respawning was the worst thing that's ever happened to me! Augh!"

Fred couldn't hold it in anymore and started howling with laughter.

"What… Are…. You…. Wearing?" Fred questioned between bursts of laughter. Ivor scowled in response.

"Shut up!" Ivor snapped. "It's what I've been wearing under my adventuring clothes. It breathes wonderfully."

"Uh, huh." Jesse nodded.

Fred's laughter only dimmed when he saw Slab walking towards them, with a look of pure loathing on his face. Figures, since Fred killed his pink-haired gladiator friend.

"You two!" Slab called out rudely. "Hadrian wants you."

"Hadrian?" Ivor questioned.

"Why does he want to see us?" Jesse questioned.

"You made him reeeaaal mad. Come on." Slab demanded. "I don't have all day."

"Before we go anywhere, I want more information." Jesse replied.

"And 'I' wanted to kill you two. Especially you, after what you did to my fellow gladiator." Slab responded, pointing to Fred. "But they wouldn't let me. Guess that means we don't always get what we want. Come on."

Fred, Ivor and Jesse began to follow, but Ivor was pushed back by Slab.

"No. Just Fred and Jesse. Hadrian doesn't allow dirty respawns in the palace."

Fred and Jesse followed Slab.

"Just try and be safe, you two." Ivor said. "I don't trust them."

As they followed Slab, a miner got their attention.

"Pssst! I need to talk to you." The miner whispered. Slab stopped and turned around.

"Keep up. Come on." Slab ordered.

"Come here, it'll be quick." The miner pleaded.

"You two, are you gonna do what I say or not?" Slab snarled.

"Gimme one sec, I want to talk to him." Jesse said, before walking towards the miner.

"You're gonna get me in trouble!" Slab growled. "Hurry up!"

"Do I look like I care?" Fred asked, before joining the conversation Jesse and the Miner were having.

"Hey, what's up?" Jesse greeted.

"Hi, Jesse, Fred. I'm Sebastian." The miner introduced. "I know you're about to see the Old Builders and I just wanted to say, please. Just don't make them mad. Whatever they want you to do, just do it. It is 'way' worse for us when they're mad. We're just happy you're here. I know you're so busy."

"Come on, Sebastian. They're not going to make things any worse as long as we're around." Jesse assured.

"You haven't been here when Mevia starts throwing a TNT tantrum, from up there." Sebastian replied.

"Yikes." Jesse remarked.

"Yeah, it's not fun." Sebastian agreed.

"I can only imagine." Fred added.

Slab approached them impatiently.

"I don't want to keep you, but some of the miners and I, well… we make you something." Sebastian said. He pulled out a piece of Lapis Lazuli. Fred reached out and took it. "I know it's not much, but it's all we have."

"No, no. It's good." Fred responded. "In fact, Lapis blue is actually my favorite color. You know, you didn't have to do this."

"YOU TWO, COME ON!" Slab yelled. Sebastian ran off. Fred and Jesse approached Slab.

"And now we're gonna be late and 'I'm' gonna get in trouble." Slab whined.

"Oh, boo, hoo, hoo. I don't care." Fred retorted.

"Oooh, I am going to enjoy squishing you at some point." Slab growled.

"Wow, I'm intimidated." Fred deadpanned. "Just shut your damn cake-hole and take us to Hadrian already."

They walked off to the Old Builder's Palace.

* * *

Author's Notes: Well, that's a wrap for this chapter.

And Fred's playful side appears again.

Not much else to say for this chapter.

Like it? Review. Don't like it? Look up something else.

More to follow.


	19. A Journey's End - Deal or No Deal

Chapter 19 – Deal or No Deal

* * *

Disclaimer: If you have not read **Fred: Admin in Exile** yet. I suggest you read that story first before reading this one.

(Minecraft: Story Mode and its characters belong to Telltale Games, not me.)

* * *

(JESSE'S POV)

Slab led Fred and Jesse into the palace and took them to a room filled with quartz and stained glass.

"Wow, so, this is how the Old Builders live." Jesse commented.

"Totally epic, right?" Slab agreed. "Sometimes I like to just stand here and…"

Slab inhaled a huge deep breath.

"I gotta say, this does impress me." Fred added. "Their attitude though, not so much."

"But why am I standing around?" Slab questioned himself. "I gotta go find Hadrian. Thanks to you, we're late. Oh, and don't touch anything!"

"Slab said, don't touch anything. He never said don't look at everything." Jesse said to Fred, winking.

Jesse moved to the window, where he had an awesome view of the entire competitor village.

"Now that's a view." Jesse remarked. "Hey, there's Petra and Lukas."

Jesse noticed a bat hanging upside down near the glass. He tapped his hand on it.

"Psst. Hey bat. Hey Batsy."

The bat unlatched itself and flew away.

"No portal atlas in here." Fred said as he dug through the books on the bookshelf. "Although, I did find another Soren book in here. 'A Man Forever Voyaging'. Wow, that guy is definitely a little bit eccentric. Still don't understand how these managed to get to different worlds however."

Jesse wasn't listening, he had just spotted a golden plated set of armor. It was the same armor that Tim was wearing on the posters. Fred approached Jesse, having seen the armor.

"Tim's armor." Jesse observed. "That now belongs to Jesse."

Jesse moved to take it, when he was interrupted by Hadrian.

"So." Hadrian said, completely startling Jesse and Fred. "I see you've found Tim's armor. Gotta say, I'm surprised that you two would just steal that armor like that, considering everyone is calling you 'Tim in disguise' and 'The New Tim', doesn't seem like a very 'Tim' thing to do, does it?"

Seriously, did Hadrian just appear out of thin air?

"Yes, I've heard the rumors that they're calling you that, and I can definitely see why. People love an underdog story." Hadrian continued.

"Give it to me straight, why did you invite us up here, Hadrian?" Jesse questioned.

"Why, so we could continue to discuss the terms of our deal." Hadrian answered.

"More terms?"

"Hmmph. You can look closer, go ahead." Hadrian said. "I assume by now you've heard all about Tim?"

"Yes. Repeatedly." Fred responded.

"Everyone loves him. And why shouldn't they? After all, he's Tim."

"Yeah, it seems like he really gives them hope." Jesse replied.

"Even better than that, they really believe in him." Hadrian added. "Tim is an inspiration to them, even when he's not here. One could say he's an inspiration BECAUSE he's not here."

"What do you mean?" Jesse inquired.

"It's so much easier for a legend to stay nice and shiny when it's a fond memory. Easier to control it." Hadrian explained. "I've been watching your legend grow, but I worry that with you still in the picture, it could get… messy. I've been starting to think it would be best if you two made a quiet exit. You don't belong here. These games aren't for you."

"Sorry, Hadrian. But we don't do 'quiet exits'" Fred responded.

"Do you have any idea who you're talking to?" Hadrian deadpanned.

Jesse almost snorted, he was asking that to an Admin?

"Actually, I should be the one asking you that. Because, trust me. There's a lot about me that you don't know." Fred retorted.

"I know a lot more than you might think, sporto." Hadrian stated proudly. "See, there's something you should know about the games. No one ever wins unless we want them to. Not even Tim. Let that sink in for a moment, eh?"

"Wait a minute, are you implying that Tim isn't real?" Fred questioned.

"I knew you were a smart one, muscles. Of course he's not real." Hadrian confirmed. "Tim gives them hope! He keeps them playing the games, but no one wins. Ever. Which is why I think it'd be in your best interest to… play along."

Hadrian's gaze stared directly into Fred's eyes.

"Don't you miss Romeo and Xara?" Hadrian asked. "What about Fred's Keep?"

Jesse saw Fred flinch in surprise. Jesse could not agree more, how the hell did Hadrian know that?

"And what about you?" Hadrian questioned, looking at Jesse. "Don't you miss your friends? Your treehouse?"

"How the hell do you know about that?" Fred asked in a deadly whisper.

"The Atlas can see where people are from, you know. So I had Mevia go check it out." Hadrian continued, unfazed. "She was unable to find where this 'Fred's Keep' was, but I did find out that Jesse here was pretty famous! I was impressed! Had her bring back some things you might be interested in."

Hadrian pulled out a diamond pickaxe and dug open the wall. Jesse peered inside to find…

"AXEL! OLIVIA!" Jesse exclaimed upon seeing his two old friends sitting in cages.

"Hey, Jesse!" They greeted. Jesse and Fred ran inside.

"Oh my gosh, I can't believe you're here."

"Yeah, this really scary lady showed up and knocked us out. Now we're in these smelly boxes." Axel explained.

"What's going on here?" Olivia inquired.

"And that guy's voice is the worst." Axel commented. "I can even hear it through the obsidian."

"I'm going to get you guys free, I promise." Jesse promised.

"It's great to hear that YOU'RE not a prisoner at least." Axel said.

"Well, I kind of am. But different." Jesse admitted.

"Oh."

"I'm just glad we're all back together." Olivia said.

"Wait till we tell the others you're here. I've missed you guys so much." Jesse finished, his voice cracking with emotion.

Hadrian stepped in, clapping.

"Wow, this is just… wow. Such a tapestry of human drama and emotion. And we haven't even gotten to the best part."

"What are you talking about?" Fred questioned.

"I saved that for last! Oh yes. Your best friend…" Hadrian paused.

Jesse and Fred's bodies tensed up at the same time, for different reasons. (1)

"…Reuben." Hadrian finished. He stepped aside. But what stepped out wasn't Reuben. It wasn't even a pig. It was the blue-shirted usher from back at Endercon.

"Sup." He greeted.

Fred facepalmed so hard that Jesse thought he was going to knock himself out.

"I've heard all about him, your best friend." Hadrian continued, clearly not understanding.

"Hadrian, for an Old Builder, you are not that bright, you know that?" Jesse sighed.

"What?"

"I told you bro. Like, my name IS Reuben." The usher explained. "But the Reuben you're thinking of? He was like a little piggy."

"Yeah, and he's dead." Fred finished.

"Though seriously dude. Big fan." 'Reuben' added.

"Mevia…" Hadrian growled, facepalming.

"So, you used the Atlas to kidnap my friends, and that other guy. Why?" Jesse questioned.

"Incentive, Jesse. Incentive. See, even if you win, and that's a mighty big IF! They will be staying to work in the mines, forever. Or until they get a shot at competing which is… still basically forever." Hadrian said.

"No!" Olivia pleaded.

"Okay, so what's your 'deal'?" Jesse asked.

"If you lose the next match and go work in my mines, Then I will let your friends go. All of them. You'll just have to stay behind in their place." Hadrian clarified.

"Nope. You're a dirty cheater!" Fred said. "You know we will win, so you're just trying to change the deal around however you can!"

"You wound me, Freddy. Your barbed words. Ouch." Hadrian remarked. "Okay, I had hoped that watching your sad reunion would be entertaining but I'm done now. Whaddya say, Sport? Your freedom for theirs? Huh?"

"Do you think you're worth more than all of them?" Hadrian questioned.

"Oh, piss off, Hadrian!" Fred snapped. "We do not make deals with cheaters."

Jesse saw Axel nod in agreement.

"Fine. We'll play it your way." Hadrian conceded. "Which is to say I will crush you, and you won't win anyway! Slab! Get these two wastes of oxygen out of my office!"

Slab reappeared.

"Sure thing, Boss! Come along, idiots!"

Slab grabbed Jesse and Fred's arms, only for Fred to rip his arm out of Slab's grip.

"Fine! We're going." Fred snapped.

Jesse looked back at Axel and Olivia, who were now being hidden from sight by a layer of obsidian.

"We'll be back for you!" Fred reassured. "Just sit tight! Come on, Jesse!"

Fred and Jesse exited the palace in a run.

* * *

(FRED'S POV)

Fred and Jesse did not stop running until they reached the competitor village and found the others.

"Jesse! Fred! You're okay!" Ivor called out as Fred and Jesse approached them.

"What happened up there?" Petra inquired.

"Have you seen what Ivor is wearing?" Lukas asked, laughing.

"I said shut up!" Ivor snapped.

"Hadrian has Axel and Olivia." Jesse explained.

"WHAT!?" Petra, Lukas and Ivor exclaimed at once.

"He used the Atlas to snatch them from our world." Jesse continued.

"Are they okay?" Petra asked.

"If we count out the fact that they are in obsidian prisons, then yeah." Fred responded. "Anyway, he offered us a deal. He would send you all home if me and Jesse lose and go to the mines in your place."

Everyone began to look hopeful.

"You didn't take it, did you?" Cassie asked.

"No, I told Hadrian to piss off." Fred admitted proudly.

"Oh." Harper responded.

"I guess that was probably the right move." Petra concluded.

"Probably? What, you thought that deal sounded good?" Lukas questioned. Cassie nodded in agreement.

"I don't know. It's a complex situation!" Petra snapped.

"Dunno if you were listening there, but if we took that deal. We'd be stuck in the mines FOREVER!" Fred reminded.

"Except now, win or lose, you'll have friends doomed to the same fate!" Harper pointed out.

"Hmm! Fred was smart." Em said, approaching them. "Hadrian never would've kept that deal. Even if you did volunteer to throw the games, he'd just send you all to the mines anyway."

"Probably, while claiming that was the original deal." Harper agreed.

"So, who's supposed to help us then? Hadrian and Mevia are both clearly the worst." Petra questioned.

"What about Otto?" Fred suggested.

"Otto? How could he help?" Harper responded. "He's stayed out of the more, lever-pulling sides of the games."

"He seems like a big fan of the rules. Maybe we can use that to our advantage." Jesse suggested.

"Ha, he loves rules, that's for sure." Harper commented. "Always plays by 'em. If you won, I know he would definitely make sure you got that Atlas. That was the original deal, and he's an honorable man."

"And don't forget about our friends who are locked up in Hadrian's prison." Fred reminded.

Harper pulled out a diamond pickaxe.

"I can handle it." She said.

"Good there's three of them. They're in Hadrian's office." Jesse said.

Harper nodded.

"Wait, wait, wait. You really think you can free everyone in this place and win the games?" Em questioned.

"Yes?" Fred responded, raising an eyebrow.

"Good luck with that last part. Do you really think you two can just beat all the other teams by yourselves?"

Jesse rolled his eyes.

"That is a pretty tall order, even for you two." Harper agreed.

"The Old Builders expect us all to fight each other, we don't intend to give them the satisfaction." Jesse pointed out.

Em crossed her arms.

"You're, what, gonna convince everyone to work together?"

"Oh yeah." Jesse replied.

Fred noticed that a lot of people were listening in on their conversation.

"Whoa. Looks like we've got a little bit of an audience here." Lukas commented.

"Do one of your speeches." Fred whispered into Jesse's ear.

Everyone surrounded them now.

"I think that's your cue to do your thing." Petra said.

Jesse stood up onto the podium with Tim's poster on it. Fred meanwhile was watching the window where Hadrian's office was, making sure that Hadrian wasn't watching.

"The Old Builder's make you all compete in the games. Event after event after event. They build up hope, but they're still controlling everything." Jesse announced. "They'll never REALLY let anyone win unless we work together. Hadrian keeps twisting and changing the rules. I say it's out time to change the rules on them."

"What's the point? Hadrian will still have all the power." Em objected. "There's no way he's gonna let us just take that from him."

"Hadrian's not fully in control. Winning is possible, Em." Jesse responded. "Don't you want to win?"

"I do, more than anything." Em answered. "But nobody beats Hadrian at his own games. Nobody."

A yellow competitor stepped up.

"Hey, Tim did!" She pointed out. Fred and Jesse both looked at each other nervously. Looks like it was time to break the news.

"Actually, Tim's not real." Jesse said. A collection of gasps followed.

"That's… no way. Of course Tim's real." The yellow competitor said in denial. "Look at the banners."

"Are you sure?" Em asked.

"Yeah, Hadrian told me." Jesse said. That seemed to convince everyone that Jesse was telling the truth.

"I knew it." Lukas stated. "All of that stuff about him seem so implausible."

"So wait, Tim's made up? They just invented him?" Em inquired.

"What a highly elaborate fabrication." Ivor remarked.

"Yeah, no one REALLY wins these games." Jesse said.

A yellow competitor broke down into tears.

"But, we can beat the Old Builders!" Jesse continued.

"The Old Builders already controlled everything else, OF COURSE they control the games." Em concluded. "Why should I even try anymore? Sitting in their stupid tower, pulling all the levers."

Fred stepped up.

"But, look on the bright side. The Old Builders don't know that we know. We have a surprise up our sleeve."

"Surprise. Awesome. That'll be a TON of help when a gladiator's running at me with an enchanted sword." Em retorted.

"Yeah! I mean like your plan to take down the Old Builders sounds cool and all, but um… those gladiators are, like, super tough." Nell agreed. "Like, max-level scariness, okay? Boo! Oh no, I mean totally OP."

"And that's the thing. Those Gladiators act like they are all tough and almighty." Fred continued. "But, I am tougher. Let me remind you that I managed to take down one of those Gladiators easily, remember how I disarmed Clutch and plunged a sword into her?"

"Oh, yeah." Nell said.

"Exactly, you might not be the toughest, but as long as you know how to fight back, you can give those gladiators a run for their money." Fred said.

"You might not believe in yourselves, but I believe in you! And I believe that we will be FREE!" Jesse finished.

The reaction wasn't as great as Fred expected. Some people clapped, some people gave a cheer, but everyone walked away right after.

"My whole world view has been turned upside down." Fred heard someone say. As he stepped down, Em approached him.

"Look, it was a nice speech. But strength doesn't come from speeches." Em pointed out. "Actions speak louder than words. Can't expect to just talk your way through this, Jesse."

"Our strength comes from our friends, we're always there for each other." Jesse said.

"It's true. Jesse and Fred never even gave up on me, and I used to be a bad guy." Ivor agreed.

"Oh, and Em? I'm sorry about before, with the whole disguising thing." Fred apologized. "No hard feelings, but I only disguised as you to mess with Hadrian. Besides, you can consider that payback for betraying us in Gladiator Junction."

"How did you even do that shapeshifting thing anyway?" Em questioned.

"Sorry, but that is to remain a secret for now. You will find out, in time." Fred cryptically responded.

Em shrugged and walked off.

"Man, some crowd. Think that got through to them?" Lukas asked.

"Wait, so who are we fighting then?" A yellow team competitor questioned.

Jesse facepalmed.

"Reaction definitely seemed mixed." Lukas remarked.

"It had to, or else we're in big trouble." Jesse said.

"Yeah, that last game is all or nothing." Petra agreed.

"Well, I guess we'll find out for sure in the morning." Ivor said, leading them towards the dormitory.

* * *

Author's Notes: That's a wrap for this chapter.

I'll leave the reason why Fred tensed up for you to figure out. Good luck.

I named the chapter title after an old Australian gameshow of the same name that I used to watch. I picked out this name because of the part where you choose whether to accept Hadrian's deal or not, and that show came to mind when I got to that part while writing this chapter.

Like it? Review. Don't like it, look up another story.

More to follow.


	20. A Journey's End - The Walls

Chapter 20 – The Walls

Disclaimer: If you have not read **Fred: Admin in Exile** yet. I suggest you read that story first before reading this one.

(Minecraft: Story Mode and its characters belong to Telltale Games, not me.)

* * *

(JESSE'S POV)

"Ladies and gentlemen, it is my privilege, nay, my honor, to be here today, kicking off another wonderful day of THE GAMES!" Hadrian announced.

"That's right, Hadrian." Otto agreed. "And not just any day, but the 'final' day of The Games! Are our competitors ready for the final challenge; 'The Walls!'"

"It's the Walls!" Mevia said at the same time as Otto.

Jesse and Fred arrived at the end of the tunnel that Facemeat was leading them through.

"So, scared?" Facemeat inquired. "Because, it's okay if you are. No one will judge you for it."

"The guy who managed to defeat a gladiator, scared?" Fred asked in disbelief. "Yeah, and Romeo is just as likely to come bursting into the stadium here wearing a tutu."

"Would you both shut up?" Jesse snapped. "They're talking about the rules or something and I'm trying to listen."

"Ugh, I should've guessed you're one of those people that listens to the rules." Facemeat retorted. "Don't worry, huh. They're just about to get to the important part."

"Mevia, for those unfamiliar with 'The Walls', you wanna walk us through how it's played?" Hadrian suggested.

"Sure thing, Hadrian." Mevia said. "Teams start out separated in their own sections divided by the high inner walls. Each team has a short amount of time to gather materials, build defenses and craft in their section, before 'The Walls' come down."

Facemeat knocked Fred and Jesse into their section. Looking around, there was only dirt and gravel.

"Wait! I only see dirt and gravel in my section!" Jesse pointed out.

"Oh, I'm sorry. Is that gonna be a problem?" Facemeat questioned sarcastically.

"The sections are drawn at random." Hadrian said.

"Yeah. 'Random', my arse." Fred retorted.

"Whatever, I'll make it work. I'm THAT awesome." Jesse spat.

"Can't wait." Facemeat responded.

"Once the Walls are down, it's every team for themselves." Mevia said.

"But is surviving 'The Wall' the end, Mevia?" Hadrian questioned.

"No it is not, Hadrian. Whichever team survives the free-for-all needs to step onto the winner's platform in the center of the arena." Mevia explained.

"Winner, takes all!" Otto added.

"But let's not get ahead of ourselves, because that's only if the would-be winners can defeat—"

"-OUR GLADIATORS!" Hadrian finished. "That's right. So all competitors better get to gathering materials, because that clock, is, ticking!"

"Tick tock!" Facemeat taunted.

"Ugh! This better not just all be dirt and gravel." Fred groaned. He approached a patch of the ground and dug.

If Fred's annoyed groan was anything to go buy, Jesse assumed that there was nothing but dirt and gravel. Jesse approached a gravel patch and dug. Yep, it was still gravel.

"Gravel?! GRAVEL? That's worse than dirt!" Jesse yelled in frustration.

While Fred was tearing his hair out in frustration, Jesse approached Facemeat.

"Heh, seems like they're happy you didn't get anything." Facemeat said. "I think they're making fun of you. But just me, you know, professional opinion.

"Oh, ya think?" Jesse inquired.

"Well, yeah. I do actually." Facemeat responded.

"Rhetorical Question!" Jesse pointed out before joining Fred.

"I don't think he knows what that is, Jesse." Fred said. "Anyway, if people weren't convinced with that speech of yours, we're gonna need something to work with."

Before Jesse could respond, Hadrian's voice interrupted.

"Oh, do you know what time it is? Ask me what time it is, Mevia."

"What time is it, Hadrian?" Mevia asked.

"It's time for the walls to come down!" Hadrian announced as the walls of sand lowered. Jesse noticed that the other people didn't seem to have been that much better off. At best, they held wooden swords and tools.

"The competitors are like wild ocelots, sizing each other up, unmoving, before they go in for the kill!" Hadrian commentated.

Jesse heard something being crafted by Em at a crafting table. It was a stone sword. She began to move towards Jesse.

"Hang on now, we've got movement." Otto relayed.

"Em, what are you doing?" Fred questioned.

"Looks like the Gladiator-Formerly-Known-As-Emily is preparing her attack!" Hadrian observed.

"Meanwhile, Jesse and Fred are just standing there. Painfully unarmed and unprotected." Mevia added.

"Jesse." Em snarled. Jesse took a step back.

"This could get ugly." Hadrian said.

"Em. Don't do this." Fred warned.

"Already made up my mind." Em responded, unsheathing a stone sword.

"Here, take this." Fred whispered, offering Clutch's enchanted axe to Jesse, who took it.

"It seems Fred has just given Jesse something to defend himself with." Otto commentated.

"Em, if you want to hurt Jesse, you'll have to get through me first." Fred stated, standing in-front of Jesse. Em stopped, did something completely unexpected. She offered out her sword. Mevia gasped.

"Thought I'd try giving that 'friends' thing a shot." Em suggested.

"Good. You made a good decision there." Fred responded, handing the sword to Jesse.

"What is Em doing? Why is she doing that?" Jesse heard Hadrian whisper angrily.

"I have no idea!" Mevia snapped.

"Come on, over here!" Em invited, prompting the other competitors to join her.

Slab and the other gladiators approached the group. Clutch, Jesse noted, had been given armor replacements.

"Yeah, why aren't you all killing each other?" Slab questioned.

"Yeah, see. Usually all the little teams kill each other." Clutch agreed.

"Yeah, and then we kill whoever is left." Facemeat finished.

"Aren't you tired of letting the Old Builders use you like this?" Jesse asked.

"Like, awesome people?" Slab guessed.

"No, like little pieces in their games! Doing whatever they say!" Jesse corrected. "Don't you see? None of us are the enemy, it's them."

Jesse pointed to Hadrian and Mevia.

"They're the enemies. They're behind everything."

"Augh, my head hurts." Clutch groaned.

"Too, many, perspectives!" Facemeat struggled.

"And it appears that the Gladiators are being idiots right now, IDIOTS! When what they should be doing, is ELIMINATING JESSE!" Hadrian yelled.

"Oh, quit your whining!" Fred snapped.

"Impeciles!" Mevia growled.

Clutch grabbed Slab.

"Slab? Slab! What should we do?"

"Uh, uhhhh." Slab responded in confusion.

"I'm sure that the slaughter will commence, soon, right?" Hadrian inquired.

"With Slab leading the charge, it should be NO problem at all." Mevia agreed.

"You should be on our side! Join us!" Jesse suggested.

"I dunno." Clutch said.

"Facemeat finds that idea, weird." Facemeat stated.

All of the gladiators except for Slab turned around and left.

"Not, going with them, Slab?" Jesse questioned.

"In my life, I've done some things I'm not proud of. But I won't work for bosses who use people or manipulate them. That's inconsiderate." Slab admitted.

"Exactly. You should join us." Fred offered.

"Lemme finish, you made me late when I was just tryin' to do my job, and that was real inconsiderate too." Slab continued. He pointed to Fred. "And then this guy rubbed it in my face, killing one of my fellow Gladiators and then reminding me that I couldn't kill him for that. Even though I really wanted to at the time. I think I need some time to be my own boss."

Slab walked away.

"Jeez, Slab. Don't need to take it so personally." Fred remarked. "Anyway, why don't we finish this. Together."

Fred, Jesse, Em and the rest of the competitors moved towards the victory platform.

"It appears all the competitors are headed towards the victory platform." Otto commentated. "As stated in our rules, anyone who is not eliminated may step on the victory platform and win the games. It looks like they are going to do this together!"

"Right behind you, fearless leader!" Em said.

"That won't happen! It can't happen!" Hadrian panicked. "No! NO!"

The competitors climbed onto the platform.

"And they've done it! The competitors have all stepped onto the platform together which, by the Builder Game bylaws, means they! Are! ALL THE! WINNERS!"

Everyone cheered, while Hadrian stammered in rage.

"Which, I'm sure my colleague means to say, we are going to find some way to disqualify them?" Mevia suggested.

"No, we are not! They all win!" Otto declared.

"NO!" Mevia screamed.

"Mevia! Otto! With me!" Hadrian ordered. "We're ending this!"

Jesse and the others stepped down from the platform, to face a furious Hadrian.

"So help me, NONE of you will leave this place until you ELIMINATE EACH OTHER!" He growled.

"Oh, would you cut it out with the cheating and bending the rules already?" Jesse complained. "I heard Mevia, the game ends when someone steps on the Winners Platform. Boom."

"Jesse's got a point." Otto agreed.

Mevia pushed past Hadrian.

"THIS ISN'T UP TO YOU! WE CONTROL THE GAMES! WE DECIDE THEIR OUTCOME!"

"Mevia-" warned Otto.

"SHUT UP! OTTO! THESE TWO NEED TO PAY FOR RUINING OUR FUN!"

"So, you admit the games are rigged, then?" Jesse asked.

"S-S-S-Sure, Okay. Sure. Fine! Whatever!" Mevia stammered.

"Mevia, Jesse won these games fair and square." Otto said. "He's earned the Atlas."

"Otto, I would think very carefully about what you're doing." Hadrian said in a stern tone.

"I have." Otto responded. He pulled out a cyan glowing book. "Jesse, with the power invested in me as an officiator of the Builder Games, I am proud to present-"

Before Jesse could grab the Atlas, Hadrian and Mevia covered Otto in obsidian.

"Hadrian! Mevia! What are you doing?" Otto's voice growled.

"Now it's been fun, really. But I think it's about time we end this." Mevia suggested.

"Surrender the Redstone Heart, now." Hadrian ordered. "Because, ha. I 'will' trap you here, forever."

"You want the Redstone Heart?" Jesse questioned, playing decoy. "You're going to have to pick it out of my inventory."

"Fine by me. The hard way's more fun anyway." Hadrian said.

Jesse winked at Fred, who winked back. Before anyone could so much as breathe, however. Hadrian and Mevia covered all of the competitors, including Fred in obsidian. Leaving Jesse and Em alone with the Old Builders.

"Augh! This is useless!" Em stated before running off.

"Well, well." Hadrian said.

"Just when you thought Em and Freddy had your back." Mevia taunted.

"Em! Come back!" Jesse yelled.

"Now that you've lost both of your oversized friends. You really don't stand a chance." Hadrian stated.

"Run away little Emily." Mevia encouraged.

Hadrian pulled out a sword and ran towards Jesse.

"You're gonna need all the help you can get, Jesse!" He warned, before building his way above Jesse. "Time to take what is mine!"

Hadrian lunged at Jesse, who managed to dodge out of the way. Jesse moved to attack Hadrian with Clutch's axe, when Hadrian's sword suddenly changed into a shield. It changed into an axe next.

"I'll admit you're quick, sport. But not quick enough for my axe." Hadrian pointed out. Jesse bumped into a wall.

"Don't forget my axe, Hadrian." Mevia said as she appeared out of the corner and missed Jesse's head by an inch with her axe. She laughed.

Hadrian kicked Jesse into a pair of slime blocks, which knocked Jesse back, right next to some flashing TNT. Jesse quickly scrambled and managed to get away from the blast radius of the TNT just in time. He saw Hadrian on top of the obsidian that covered the competitors. Jesse quickly pursued him.

"Gotta admit, Kid. You've shown you got skills." Hadrian admitted. "But you're still no match for me!"

Mevia jumped between them.

"We'll see about that." Jesse responded.

"I got this, Hadrian!" Mevia said as she aimed a blow with her sword. Jesse slid underneath her and pushed Hadrian straight into a pit that had been dug up earlier.

"Had enough, Hadrian?" Jesse asked.

"Wait, wait! You're right. This has gone too far." Hadrian pleaded. "It was just supposed to be a game!"

Jesse wasn't buying it.

"You expect me to believe that?" Jesse questioned in disbelief.

"Come on, sport. Haven't you ever had anything get away from you before? Can't you… forgive me?" Hadrian asked.

Mevia snuck up behind Jesse, knocked his axe away and knocked him down. She changed her sword into axes.

"This game-" Mevia began.

"NO!" Jesse cried.

"-IS OVER!" Mevia finished.

Before Mevia could bring her axes down, a blue colored blur engulfed her.

"Wait, what? What's going on?" Hadrian questioned.

Jesse saw Mevia being held down by a furious looking Fred, in his Admin Form.

"Did you forget about me?" Fred taunted. "Well, let me show you just who you are dealing with, shall we?"

Fred waved his left hand. All of the obsidian covering Otto and the Competitors vanished. At the same time, Em arrived with the rest of Jesse's friends.

"Welcome, people. You've just made it in time for the good part." Fred announced.

They watched on in amazement. Fred clapped his hands, and Mevia floated 10 feet into the air. Everyone watching on, most of them, including Jesse in amusement while Hadrian in horror.

Fred dug up the ground, to reveal the ground where Petra, Cassie and Lukas first 'died' in spleef. Jesse was willing to bet that the crusher was still there. Fred dropped Mevia, and sure enough, she was crushed upon hitting the floor. She spilled out a gigantic inventory.

"Wow, her inventory was huge." Jesse commented. Fred turned towards Hadrian, who seemed to pale in fear.

"Wait, wait, wait!" He pleaded.

Fred clapped and spawned four blue lined prison golems.

"Golems, give this little dweeb a piece of my mind." Fred ordered. All four of the golems nodded before approaching Hadrian and beginning to maul him to death.

* * *

(HADRIAN'S POV)

It was the most painful thing that Hadrian had ever experienced. Just seeing those four terrifying golems closing in on him, mercilessly ripping him apart, and then respawning, which was worse.

"I KNEW IT! YOU AND YOUR STUPID DEALS!" Mevia shouted once Hadrian had respawned.

"There's no time for that now, Mevia. We have to get out of here. C'mon!" Hadrian responded. He pulled her towards the door, but it was already being blocked by a ton of furious looking gladiators.

"Ohhh, whoa, heh. Hey guys." Hadrian stammered.

"How's it going?" Mevia asked, fearfully.

"It's going 'not the best'." Clutch answered. "And you're not going anywhere."

"Yeah, Facemeat wants to discuss his benefits plan." Facemeat agreed. They began to approach them.

"Now, hang on! HANG ON!" Hadrian pleaded, to no avail.

* * *

(FRED'S POV)

"Fred! Jesse! You guys did it! Again!" Lukas appraised. "Feels like I say that a lot."

"Thanks. It was my pleasure to have you guys witness the Old Builders suffering their demise." Fred responded.

Otto approached Fred.

"Well done, Fred. An excellent job." He complimented.

"Thanks." Fred said.

"You have truly shown my friends and I, the error of our ways." Otto said. "I am glad to put this whole messy business behind us."

"You know, Otto. You really need to learn how to pick better friends." Fred stated.

"Yes, I have come to that same conclusion and I am, working on it." Otto responded. "I also know that the Atlas is not mine to keep."

Hadrian's voice screamed out. Fred saw that the gladiators were beating them up quite brutally.

"Oooh. Wouldn't want to be them right now." Fred commented.

"You have fairly defeated them, seems only fair that you get to decide their fate." Otto suggested. "And with the Atlas, you can send them anywhere you want."

Jesse stepped up.

"You know, there was this game that Olivia and I used to play back in our treehouse." Jesse said.

"What is it?" Fred asked.

"We called it, 'Which would you rather fight?'" Jesse responded.

"Oh, yeah. I remember that question. Olivia asked it not long after I had met you guys. And after years of thinking, I think I may finally have my answer to that." Fred deduced. "My answer would be zombie-sized chickens."

"Why's that?" Olivia asked.

"Because, they're chickens. They aren't hostile mobs, and they're big, so you wouldn't have much difficulty taking them down." Fred reasoned. "Not that I'd ever attack one in my life. I used to own a pet chicken, you know. His name was Waffles."

* * *

"-and that is when I ripped PAMA's redstone heart right out of its socket. And the whole system just crashed." Fred finished recalling.

"Man, you guys have had some crazy adventures." Axel remarked. "So many people trying to kill you."

"Goodbye Fred! Goodbye! Thank you!" A yellow competitor called out.

Fred waved as she went through a purple colored portal.

"That all of them?" Harper asked.

"Everyone that wants to go home, anyhow." Otto responded. "Except you folks, that is. Can't believe how many competitors actually want to stay and keep playing the games."

Otto turned to Fred.

"Thanks to you, my intrepid new friend, I can actually work on making them FUN again." Otto finished. "Very exciting. It'll be more challenging just by myself, but a good challenge."

"Now, you promise that they'll stay fun this time, right?" Fred questioned sternly.

"Oh yes. I don't intend to let the games get corrupted like they did before." Otto assured.

Jesse turned towards Em.

"Well, Em. How about you? You said you wanted to go home, right?" Jesse asked.

"Yes, I just can't decide if it's what I want. You get to leave and go on more adventures." Em responded. "Do I really want to go back to farming? I mean, it has been ages since I've seen it, and I miss my friends. But what if I'm bored?"

"Well, I would suggest that you come back with us." Fred said, putting an arm on her shoulder. "But, our world's a little bit dangerous right now. There's someone there, an Admin just like me who uses his powers not for good, but for his own selfish reasons."

Fred stepped in-front of her.

"But, I was thinking of dropping by in the future to help Otto out with fixing the games, maybe you'd like to help?" Fred suggested.

Em's face brightened at that suggestion.

"Fred, that's an awesome idea! We can actually make them fun! Maybe I can be head gladiator." Em suggested.

"Yeah!" Fred nodded.

"Thanks Fred. I needed that."

Fred saw Jesse approach Ivor. Curious, he listened in.

"Hey Ivor." Jesse greeted.

"Oh! Hello!"

"Whatcha doin'?" Jesse asked.

"I was just observing Harper, all by herself over there." Ivor explained. "She seems… lonely."

"Come on." Jesse gestured, walking towards Harper. "Hey, Harper!"

Harper turned around.

"Oh, hey Jesse, Ivor. I was just watching folks head on home." Harper said. "Things really worked out, huh? Well, I guess this is goodbye. I'm gonna head on back to Crown Mesa, see how the post-PAMA construction is going. Just hope they'll take me back. It's not my REAL home, but it's the closest thing I've had for, well. A long time. We'll just go with that."

"Don't worry, I'm sure they'll come around." Jesse reassured.

"I sure hope you're right." Harper said.

"You'll be fine. You'll be fine." Ivor assured. "Getting over the 'I was a bad guy' hump can be awkward, but hopefully soon they'll invite you right back into their lives. Right Jesse?"

"You are a strange, strange man Ivor." Harper commented. "But you know something? You're okay."

Fred thought he could see Ivor blushing there. Oh, he can't wait to tease him about this.

"Take care of each other, alright? And I'll see you around." Harper finished as she walked away.

"Bye Harper!" Jesse called out.

"Yes, goodbye!" Ivor added, on the verge of tears. He pulled out the rose that he still had. "You're amazing."

"So, how do we get home now?" Lukas asked.

"Well, the Atlas belongs to Fred now. Deal's a deal and all that." Otto responded, pulling out the Atlas. Fred grabbed it.

"Nice. How do we use it?" Fred asked.

"You just say where you want to go, and the Atlas will show you the way." Otto instructed.

"Sweet. Atlas, take us back to our world." Fred said, before opening the book. A huge swirl of particles come out of the book and landed on an orange portal. Jesse, Axel, Olivia, Petra, Lukas, Ivor, Fred, Cassie and Winslow ran towards the portal that was highlighted.

Fred was going to come back and help Otto out, but he knew that going through Sky City each time would be tedious, so he spawned an empty journal, and jotted down the frame of the portal.

"Figure it's about time we get heading on home, huh?" Jesse suggested.

"That sounds awesome." Lukas responded. He ran into the portal.

"Yeah!" Olivia agreed, before running into the portal herself. The rest of the group, except for Fred ran into the portal. Fred quickly spawned a sign and placed it next to the portal. He wrote the following warning onto the sign.

_**DO NOT MENTION FRED'S HEROICS INSIDE THIS WORLD!**_

Satisfied, Fred put on his human form on. No more powers inside this world, for he did not want to leave any residue that can cause Romeo to come snooping. He followed the others through the portal.

* * *

(JESSE'S POV)

A swirl of colors later, Jesse and the group found themselves inside a very convenient location. It was the Order Hall. Fred followed in his human form a few seconds later.

"JESSE! LOOK! CAN YOU BELIEVE IT? WE MADE IT! WE'RE HOME!" Petra exclaimed.

"After all that time, all those portals. We're home!" Lukas celebrated.

"Yeah, and I couldn't have done it without you guys. You're the best team anyone could ever ask for." Jesse said.

"Aw." Lukas responded.

"That's… lovely." Ivor deadpanned.

"Ah, you big sap." Petra added.

"I'm just so glad we're all back together." Axel said.

"That Atlas is so cool. I'm glad Otto let Fred over here keep it." Olivia remarked.

"Fabulous, yes? And that's not all we got." Ivor said.

"Seriously? What else did you get?" Axel questioned.

"Yeah, show 'em. Jesse." Petra encouraged.

Jesse went to a podium and placed the flint and steel down.

"The enchanted flint and steel." Jesse announced.

"The one that started the whole thing." Olivia commented.

"Yeah. Those other adventures wouldn't have happened if we weren't chasing Aiden around with that thing." Fred agreed.

Jesse pulled out the Eversource crown and put it on another podium.

"The Crown of the Eversource." Jesse declared. "The magical source of all of Sky City's precious materials."

"Whoa, wicked." Axel commented.

"I need to try that thing out on another chicken some time." Fred said.

Jesse then placed down the White Pumpkin.

"The mask of Cassie Rose, aka 'the White Pumpkin.'" Jesse described.

"Oh man, that's even creepier-looking than I imagined." Axel commented. He turned towards Cassie. "What exactly happened in that adventure anyway?"

"I really don't want to talk about it right now." Cassie responded.

Fred stepped up and pulled out the Redstone Heart.

"This, my friends. Is the Redstone Heart." Fred announced. "This was actually made by my old friend Xara, before everything happened."

"I know that PAMA was evil and everything, but I still kind of wish I could've seen it." Olivia said.

"And finally, the Atlas." Fred announced, pulling out the cyan book and laying it on another podium.

"Augh, I could've lost all the rest so long as we got to keep that." Ivor said. "Ha, I wonder what Soren would have thought of it. So much power contained within such a tiny object."

"Whoa! Easy there, Ivor." Petra said.

"Ahem. Sorry."

"I can't believe you got to do all those incredible things." Olivia said.

"Makes sense though, you were gone a long time." Axel pointed out.

"Wait till we show you all the improvements we've been making to town." Olivia continued.

Lukas approached Jesse.

"Um, Jesse?" Lukas asked.

"What's up, Lukas?"

"So, I've been writing stuff in here, you know? And well, it's kind of become like a legitimate 'book'." Lukas pointed out. "There's just one problem, I still need to put what happened to you and Fred."

Fred cut in.

"Actually, putting my proper name in there wouldn't be such a good idea. Because of Romeo and everything. Can't believe I am suggesting this, but maybe cut out anything regarding my powers, call me 'Freddy' inside the book, and have it that you met me inside the Old Builder's world?" Fred suggested. "I may not like that nickname, but I think it'll conceal my true identity quite a bit, without making me appear as someone else. And, you can also end it by saying 'they couldn't have done it with their friends.'"

"You know something? I really like that." Lukas admitted. "There. Done. 'Til the next one, anyway. I was thinking that maybe we could put it in here with the other treasures? I know it's not as cool as like, a Portal Atlas."

"That's a great idea, Lukas. It's perfect." Jesse said. He grabbed the book and placed it on a podium. Looking over his treasures, Jesse noticed that something was off.

"Hang on."

"What is it?" Axel inquired.

"Wasn't that where the Portal Atlas was a minute ago?" Jesse asked.

"Yeah, that was definitely where you put it." Olivia agreed.

"Guys, flint and steel are missing too." Lukas said.

"And where's Ivor?" Petra asked.

"AHAHAHAHA! ADVENTURE!" Ivor's voice echoed out.

"He must be headed for the portal network!"

"Probably off to visit Harper." Fred deduced. "Don't worry about him, he'll be back."

"Come on guys, let's go home." Jesse finished

* * *

(HADRIAN'S POV)

"Well, in a very unfortunate and unexpected twist. It appears we are in the land of chickens that are indeed the size of zombies." Hadrian announced. He had to duck as a giant chicken flew past him.

"That's right Hadrian." Mevia responded. "And it looks like we're just gonna have to wing it."

Hadrian stared at her, raising an eyebrow slightly.

"Wings, chicken wings. You know?" Mevia stammered.

"You're fired Mevia. You're fired." Hadrian said.

* * *

And that is done!

Oh, boy. Can't wait for Season Two! Lot of surprises in store for that.

Keep on the lookout for '**Fred: The Final Conflict**' which should be up fairly soon. Already finished the first two chapters of it.

Like it? Review. Don't like it, look up another story.


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